GRUB

grub, the larva of an insect, a caterpillar, maggot. the word is formed from the verb "to grub," to dig, break up the surface of the ground, and clear of stumps, roots, weeds, &c. according to the _new english dictionary_, "grub" may be referred to an ablaut variant of the old teutonic _grab_-, to dig, cf. "grave." skeat (_etym. dict._ 1898) refers it rather to the root seen in "grope," "grab," &c., the original meaning "to search for." the earliest quotation of the slang use of the word in the sense of food in the _new english dictionary_ is dated 1659 from _ancient poems, ballads_, &c., percy society publications. "grub-street," as a collective term for needy hack-writers, dates from the 17th century and is due to the name of a street near moorfields, london, now milton street, which was as johnson says "much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries and temporary poems."