Covered with or resembling muck; dirty, muddy, or unpleasantly wet and messy.
From Middle English 'muck,' possibly from Scandinavian roots meaning 'dung' or 'filth.' The adjective form with '-y' suffix became common by the 1600s in English.
In British English, 'mucky' is used way more often than in American English—kids might be called 'mucky pups' for playing in mud—and linguists think this is because Britain's wetter climate made mud such a central part of daily life that they needed more colorful words for it!
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