Etymologically
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mouse

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /maʊs/; verb also /maʊz/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English mous, inherited from Old English mūs (plural mȳs),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *mūs,[2][4] which is also the source of Old Saxon mūs, Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus) and Old Norse mús.[2][3][4] It is the old Indo-European name of the animal, PIE Proto-Indo-European *mūs,[4][2] kept in Latin mūs, Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs, “mouse, muscle”), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) and Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ).[2][4][3] Hoad derives it from a base also meaning “to steal”,[3] and MWU suggests a link with Latin movēre (“to move”).[5] The plural mice shows i-mutation.[4] Old English mūs also meant the muscle of the arm (compare muscle).[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English mūs, before 700;[2][7] as a surname it appears as Muse in 1154–63 and Mous about 1280.[2]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the essential meaning, a small rodent, has never changed.[6] The name was applied popularly to small animals of other genera from early on,[7] and a mouse as the type of something timid or weak is from the late 14th century.[4] It has been contrasted with man since the 1620s, as in neither man nor mouse,[4][7] and are you a man or a mouse? is from the mid-16th century in Word Origins.[6] Burns's poem “To a Mouse” (1786) gave the line about the best-laid schemes of mice and men.[6] A black eye or other discoloured lump is attested by 1842,[4] and the word was used for mouse-shaped devices, mainly at sea, from 1750.[4] The computer mouse is from 1965,[4] so called from its small size and, in the first designs, a cord like a tail.[6] The verb, to hunt mice, is from the mid-13th century,[4][7] probably about 1150 in Barnhart.[2] Mousetrap is from about 1475.[2]

Timeline

  • before 700 – Old English mūs.[2][7]
  • mid-13th century – to hunt mice.[4][7]
  • late 14th century – a type of timidity.[4]
  • c. 1475 – mousetrap.[2]
  • 1786 – Burns's “To a Mouse”.[6]
  • 1842 – a black eye.[4]
  • 1965 – a computer mouse.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A small rodent with a pointed snout, rounded ears and a long, thin tail.
  2. A shy, quiet or timid person.
  3. (computing) A hand-held device moved over a flat surface to control a cursor on a screen.
  4. (slang) A black eye.

Verb

  1. To hunt or catch mice, as a cat or owl does.
  2. To search or move about quietly; to prowl.

Word family

  • mouselike
  • mouser

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press