Ġużé Aquilina’s Maltese-English Dictionary is an etymological one.

Regarding words derived from Arabic and Sicilian/Italian, it was not so tiring for the erudite professor to trace the etymology or origins us such words. Not so in case of words derived from other languages, particulary outside the Semitic family or the Romance group.

Two words, the origins of which Aquilina failed to trace, are ċamur and mirmes. These two words are more common in Gozo that they are in Malta.

The meaning of ċamur as given by Aquilina is as follows: “The accumulated residue left after the polishing of newly-laid (cement) tiles.”

Another word that is used in Maltese is ċupa, unknown in Gozo, but still existing as a family nickname in Naxxar.

Ċamur is derived from Turkish. Çamur (c with a cedilla) in Turkish means mud, as every modern dictionary of Turkish would affirm.

The word ċamura, however, appears to be the plural of ċamur and is a local formation.

The other word is mirmes, meaning “the tiniest crumb”.

Aquilina gives two examples in his dictionary:

Ma baqax mirmes minnu. He has been dead so long that “there is nothing left of him”.

Il-klieb u l-qtates ma ħallewx mirmes. “The dogs and the cats are up to everything.”

They did not leave the tiniest crumb of bread!

Mirmes is derived from the Greek word murmos, which means an ant.

So mirmes means a crumb as tiny as an ant. (Vide Greek-English Lexicon compiled by Henry Geore Liddell, D.D. and Robert Scot, Oxford, Clareden Press MDCCCCI, p. 986).