Other forms: mufflers
A muffler is something that deadens sound. A car muffler, a woollen muffler, fit a muffler.
In America it is the part of the exhaust that quietens the engine, which Britain calls a silencer. In older British use a muffler is a scarf, from muffling the throat. Both senses come from the same idea of wrapping something to soften it.
1nounmufflerSomething that deadens sound.
“The car's muffler had a hole in it, so the engine roared down the street.”
muffler is a device.
Proto-Indo-European
*mewH-
Proto-Germanic
*mawwō — sleeve
Frankish
*muffël — a muff, wrap, envelope
Medieval Latin
muffula — a muff
Old French
enmoufler — to wrap up, muffle
Anglo-Norman
amoufler
Middle English
muflen — to muffle
English
muffle
English, today
muffler
Built from
From muffle + -er. muffle comes from Middle English muflen (“to muffle”), aphetic alteration of Anglo-Norman amoufler, from Old French enmoufler (“to wrap up, muffle”), from moufle (“mitten”), from Medieval Latin muffula (“a muff”), of gem origin (—first recorded in the Capitulary of Aachen in 817), from Frankish muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) from mauwu (“sleeve, wrap”) (from Proto-Germanic mawwō (“sleeve”)) + vël (“skin, hide”) (from Proto-Germanic fellą (“skin, film, fleece”). Alternate etymology traces the Medieval Latin - word to Frankish molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”), English mulch) + fell (“hide, skin”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA