1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mop

MOP, a bunch of cloth, rags or coarse yarn, fastened to a pole and serving as a broom or brush for swabbing up wet floors or other surfaces and for cleaning generally. The word is usually taken to be an adaptation of Lat. mappa, cloth, napkin, cf. “map.” A particular application of the term in provincial English is to an annual hiring or statute-fair, a. “mop-fair,” at which domestic and agricultural servants out of places attended, carrying a broom, a mop or other implement indicative of their calling.