The word for today is…
maggot (noun) – 1. The legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva of any of various dipteran flies, often found in decaying matter.
2. (Slang) A despicable person.
3. (Archaic) An extravagant notion; a whim.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : The worm or grub of various insects (especially a fly), formerly supposed to be generated by corruption, late 15th century, magat, probably an unexplained variant of Middle English maddok, maðek “earthworm, bedbug, maggot,” from Old English maða “maggot, grub,” from Proto-Germanic *mathon (source also of Old Norse maðkr, Old Saxon matho, Middle Dutch, Dutch made, Old High German mado, German Made, Gothic maþa “maggot”).
Figurative use “whim, fancy, crotchet” is 1620s, from the notion of a maggot in the brain. Hence maggotry “folly, absurdity” (1706).
