Etymologically
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muzzle

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mosel, also musel,[2][3] borrowed from Old French musel (“snout; muzzle”),[4][5][6][7] now museau.[5][8] The OED derives the French word probably from Medieval Latin musellum (“guard for an animal's mouth; snout”), from mūsus (“muzzle, snout”) with a diminutive suffix,[4][9] although the French word may have been formed independently from muse (“mouth, muzzle”).[4][3] The medieval Latin word is also the source of Italian muso and Spanish mus,[4][8] but its own origin is unknown;[5][10][6] the OED mentions a proposal that it imitates the shape of the lips.[4] Earlier scholars derived the whole group from Latin morsus (“a bite”), the source of morsel, an idea the OED says has not won general acceptance.[4][11][5] The verb is from the noun.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A guard fitted over an animal's mouth to stop it biting or eating: about 1385, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale.[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer's sense, the guard on the mouth, was soon joined by the snout itself, the projecting nose and jaws of an animal, recorded about 1410 in The Master of Game;[4][2][3] by about 1421 Lydgate used it of a human face, chiefly in contempt or humour.[4][12] The guard gave the figurative sense of anything that keeps a person from speaking (1600, in Shakespeare),[4] and the verb moved likewise from putting a muzzle on an animal to silencing a person or the press, in Tyndale by 1531.[4][5] The open end of a gun barrel is called the muzzle from 1566,[4][3] a sense French had from 1521.[4] In Scotland the word was also a piece of metal at the end of a plough beam, and a veil over the lower face.[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the mouth of any thing; the mouth of a man in contempt".[13] In slang, the verb meant to kiss and fondle roughly (from 1697),[12] and muzzle-loader, a gun loaded through the muzzle, is recorded by 1858.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1385 – mosel, a guard over an animal's mouth, in Chaucer.[4][3]
  • c. 1410 – the projecting nose and jaws of an animal.[4][2]
  • c. 1421 – a person's face or mouth, in contempt or humour.[4]
  • before 1450 – verb, to restrain, keep in check as with a muzzle.[4]
  • c. 1470 – verb, to put a muzzle on an animal.[4]
  • 1531 – verb, to silence a person's mouth.[4]
  • 1566 – the open end of a gun barrel.[4][3]
  • 1600 – figuratively, something that keeps a person from speaking.[4]
  • 1858 – muzzle-loader.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The projecting jaws and nose of an animal such as a dog or horse; the snout.[14][15][4]
  2. A strap or cage fitted over an animal's mouth to stop it biting or eating.[14][15][4]
  3. The open end of the barrel of a firearm.[14][15][4]
  4. (informal or humorous) A person's face or mouth.[15][4]

Verb

  1. To put a muzzle on an animal: Muzzle the dog before the vet arrives.[14][15][4]
  2. To keep from speaking or expressing views; to gag or censor: The new law muzzled the newspapers.[14][15][4]
  3. (dialect, chiefly England) To push or root about with the muzzle; to nuzzle.[15][4]

Word family

  • muzzler
  • unmuzzle
  • muzzleloader
  • muzzle velocity
  • nuzzle
  • amuse
  • muse
  • morsel

Usage notes

A dialect verb muzzle, to befuddle or to drink to excess, is recorded from 1796 and is perhaps formed from muzz, the base of muzzy.[4][6]

References

  1. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster