muscular

Etymology

The OED takes it as borrowed from Medieval Latin muscularis, recorded from 1545 or earlier, from mūsculus (“muscle”) and the suffix -āris;^[2][3] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster form it from the Latin noun with the English suffix -ar,^[4][5] and the Shorter Oxford and the “Oxford Dictionary of English” see it as an alteration of the earlier musculous, with the suffix -ar put in place of -ous.^[6][7] Latin mūsculus means literally "little mouse", a diminutive of mūs (“mouse”), because the shape and movement of some muscles, such as the biceps, were thought to look like a mouse.^[4][8] The OED compares French musculaire, recorded from 1698.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to the muscles, or performed by them: 1670, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society;^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1680s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word replaced musculous, used in the same senses from the early 15th century, which the OED describes as now largely superseded by it.^[2][4] The sense "made of muscle" followed in 1673,^[2] and Johnson (1755) still defined it only as "performed by muscles".^[9] The everyday sense "brawny, having well-developed muscles" is recorded from 1736, in James Thomson's Liberty,^[2][4] and since 1728 the word has been used in medicine of diseases affecting the muscles;^[2] muscular dystrophy is attested from 1877.^[4] The phrase muscular Christianity, a faith devoted to good works and social issues rather than asceticism, appears in 1857 and is associated with the novelist Charles Kingsley, who disliked the term;^[4][2] the OED's first figurative use of this kind is from 1853.^[2]

Timeline

• 1670 – relating to or performed by the muscles.^[2][5]
• 1673 – composed of muscle.^[2]
• 1728 – in medicine, affecting the muscles.^[2]
• 1736 – having well-developed muscles, strong.^[2][4]
• 1853 – figurative, of Christians devoted to vigorous good works.^[2]
• 1857 – muscular Christianity.^[4]
• 1877 – muscular dystrophy.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having well-developed muscles; strong and brawny: a muscular rower.^[3][5][2]
2. Of, relating to or made of muscle: muscular tissue.^[3][5][2]
3. Performed by or involving the muscles.^[5][2][9]
4. Of a disease, affecting the muscles, as in muscular dystrophy.^[5][2]
5. Vigorous and forceful in style or action.^[5][2]

Word family

• muscularity
• muscularly
• unmuscular
• nonmuscular
• intramuscular
• submuscular
• intermuscular
• epitheliomuscular

Related words

• musculature
• musculo-
• muscle
• mussel
• mouse
• musculous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.