Other forms: molders, moldering
To molder is to crumble slowly away through decay. Molder in the attic, let it molder, moldering papers.
It suggests neglect as much as decay: things molder when nobody is looking after them, which is why it suits attics, cellars and forgotten archives. Britain spells it moulder. It is related to mould, the growth, and to the older sense of crumbling earth.
1verbmolderTo crumble slowly away through decay.
“The old letters were left to molder in a damp cellar for decades.”
molder is a decaying.
Also accepted in games: moulder
Proto-Indo-European
*melh₂- — to crush, grind
Proto-Germanic
*muldō — dirt, soil; furry growth of fungi, mould
Old English
molde — earth, soil
Middle English
mold
English
moulder
English, today
molder
Built from
moulder comes from mould + -er, probably influenced by mould (“furry growth of fungi”). Mould is derived from Middle English mold, molde (“loose friable soil, dirt, earth; earth as the substance out of which God made man, and to which the human body decays into after death”), from Old English molde (“earth, soil”), from Proto-Germanic muldō (“dirt, soil; furry growth of fungi, mould”), from Proto-Indo-European melh₂- (“to crush, grind”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire