muster

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English mustren, also moustren and mostren,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mustrer, also monstrer and moustrer, and Middle French mostrer, moustrer, to show, display, of soldiers to assemble,^[5][6][3] from Latin mōnstrō (“to show, point out”),^[5][7][3][8] from mōnstrum (“omen, sign, portent”),^[7][9][3] from moneō (“to warn”), from Proto-Indo-European *men-.^[8] The Old French verb is recorded from the 10th century and is the ancestor of montrer.^[7][5] The noun is inherited from Middle English moustre, also mustre and monstre,^[2][10] borrowed from Anglo-Norman monstre (“display, show; inspection of an army”) and Middle French moustre, mostre, example, sample, inspection of an army,^[5][3] formed from the verb and meaning literally "that which is shown".^[7][11][12] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the early 12th century.^[6] The French noun is related to mostra and muestra,^[5][13] and was borrowed in the sense "sample" into monster and Muster;^[5][13] the OED suggests that English military spellings with -n- may show the influence of monsteren.^[5] The Latin verb also gave demonstrate and remonstrate,^[14] and its source is that of monster.^[7][9][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To show, display, reveal, and also to appear or be present: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[9][5][7] The noun, first in the sense of an assembly or collection of people or things, is recorded before 1382 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first senses, "to show, display" and "a showing, display", died out in the 17th century;^[5][7][16] Chaucer used moustre for a pattern or model,^[17][2] and the sense "sample" lasted in commerce until the 19th century.^[5] The military meaning was present in French and Anglo-Norman,^[5][6] and in English the noun was used for an assembly of troops from about 1400,^[7] for an act of calling soldiers together for inspection from 1419.^[5] The transitive verb "to assemble troops for inspection or service" dates from the early 15th century (1440 in the Promptorium Parvulorum),^[7][5][9] and the intransitive "to come together" of an army from about 1425, in Lydgate.^[5] A muster was also a roll of men mustered from 1565,^[5][7] and Johnson (1755) gave "a review of a body of forces", "a register of forces mustered" and "a muster of peacocks".^[18] The phrase to pass muster, originally of soldiers who came through an inspection without blame, is first recorded in 1573 and later meant simply to be good enough;^[5][14][7] Weekley notes that it was first said of military or naval inspection.^[13] The figurative use, to summon up a quality, dates from the 1580s, and muster up in that sense from the 1620s,^[7] and in the United States muster in and muster out, to enlist and to discharge soldiers, date from the 1830s.^[7] In Australia and New Zealand the word was applied from 1841 to rounding up scattered cattle or sheep.^[5][14] In Yorkshire dialect to muster meant to get ready to leave.^[19]

Timeline

• before 1325 – to show, display; to appear (obsolete by the 17th century).^[9][5]
• before 1382 – noun, an assembly or collection.^[5]
• c. 1400 – noun, a display or showing (obsolete by 1661).^[5]
• 1419 – an assembling of soldiers for inspection.^[5]
• c. 1425 – of an army, to come together for inspection or battle.^[5]
• 1440 – to collect soldiers to be counted, inspected or enlisted.^[5][9]
• 1565 – a muster roll.^[5]
• 1573 – to pass muster.^[5]
• 1670 – to call the roll of a crew or watch.^[5]
• 1834 – muster out, American English.^[7]
• 1841 – Australian and New Zealand, a round-up of livestock.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call together soldiers, sailors or others for duty, inspection or battle: The colonel mustered the regiment at dawn.^[20][3][5]
2. Of troops or people, to come together; to assemble: The volunteers mustered in the square.^[20][5]
3. To summon up or gather a quality, often with up: She mustered all her courage.^[20][3][7]
4. (US) muster in, muster out: to enlist into or discharge from military service.^[20][3][7]
5. To call the roll of a crew or watch.^[5][21]
6. (Australia, New Zealand) To round up livestock.^[20][5]

Noun

1. An assembly of soldiers or others for inspection or duty.^[20][3][5]
2. A gathering or collection of people or things.^[20][5]
3. A muster roll.^[5][18]
4. pass muster: to be accepted as good enough.^[5][14]
5. (Australia, New Zealand) A round-up of livestock.^[20][5]

Word family

• unmustered
• muster roll
• muster out

Related words

• monster
• demonstrate
• remonstrate
• monstrance
• mustard

Usage notes

Two minor words share the spelling: an obsolete muster, a kind of grey woollen cloth, shortened from musterdevillers (1431–1549),^[5] and a Scots and northern verb muster, to whisper and later to talk volubly, of uncertain, perhaps imitative origin.^[5][19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
18. ^ 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.
19. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
20. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
21. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster