muschio

muschio¹ musk

Pronunciation

• /ˈmus.kjo/^[1]

Forms

muschio m (plural muschi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for musk is borrowed from Late Latin muscus, recorded in Jerome before 420, which adapts Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos).^[2][3][4] The Greek word is of Persian origin.^[2][3][5] The older Italian form was musco; the present form was remade from its plural, also under the pull of the word for moss, which has the same older form.^[2][3][4] The older form for musk survives in the dialects of central and southern Italy.^[3]

French musc is also learned.^[3] Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese took the substance's name through Arabic: Spanish almizcle, Catalan almesc, Portuguese almíscar.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a late 13th-century Florentine translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai, a book of medical recipes.^[7] Z. Bencivenni, in the 14th century, mixes musco ground and dissolved in rose water into a medicine.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Musk was first a drug and a merchandise: the TLIO cites Pegolotti's Pratica della mercatura, from the first half of the 14th century.^[7] The form muschio is recorded from before 1460, in Savonarola's De regimine, and in GRADIT from 1532.^[2][9]

The adjective muschiato “smelling of musk” is recorded from 1494; bue muschiato is the musk ox.^[2] Later dictionaries describe musk as a secretion of the musk deer, used as a sedative and as a fixative in perfumes, and name synthetic substances with a musk-like smell muschio artificiale.^[10][4][9]

Timeline

• Before 420 – Jerome uses Late Latin muscus for musk.^[2]
• Late 13th century – First Italian record, in the Florentine Antidotarium Nicolai.^[7]
• 14th century – Z. Bencivenni uses musco.^[2]
• Before 1460 – Savonarola uses the form muschio.^[2]
• 1494 – Muschiato appears in the Fasciculo di medicina volgare.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. musk: a strong-smelling secretion of the glands of some mammals, especially the musk deer (mosco), used in perfumery as a fixative and formerly as a medicine.^[9][11][4]
2. A perfume made from it.^[12][13]
3. (chemistry) A synthetic compound with a smell like natural musk.^[12][14]

Word family

• muschiato

muschio² moss

Pronunciation

• /ˈmus.kjo/^[1]

Forms

muschio m (plural muschi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for moss is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mūscŭlu(m), a diminutive of Latin mūscus (“moss”).^[2][3][9][6] Wiktionary sets up a syncopated *mūsclus.^[1] Old Italian also had the form Old Italian musclo.^[7] The diminutive also gave Friulian muscli and Romanian mușchi, and Ladin and Romansh forms.^[3][6][1]

The plain Latin word gave Old Italian musco, still used in Italian and in some southern dialects, and Spanish musgo and Portuguese musgo.^[2][3][8] French mousse is of Germanic origin.^[3]

The Latin word goes back to a PIE root Proto-Indo-European *mus-; it is compared with Lithuanian musaĩ (“mould”), Proto-Slavic *mъxъ, Old High German mos, German Moos and English moss.^[3][15][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo, in 1282.^[7][16] DELI's first dated record is from A. Simintendi in 1333, where a temple's roof is pale with dirty muschio.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian muschio named small green plants growing on damp ground, rocks and tree trunks, and muschio di pietra a lichen growing on rocks.^[7] In older use the word covered lichens too.^[8]

The adjective muscoso “mossy” is Latin muscōsus, recorded as muschioso around 1340 and as muscoso in Poliziano around 1480.^[2][3] Names of species followed, such as muschio quercino (1834), and in 1869 Tommaseo's dictionary has muschi for the botanical class.^[2] Modern dictionaries add a dull green colour and the moss used to decorate the Christmas crib.^[9][16]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses muschio.^[7]
• 1333 – A. Simintendi uses muschio.^[2]
• c. 1340 – Muschioso in the Tuscan translation of Palladius.^[2]
• c. 1480 – Poliziano uses muscoso.^[2]
• 1834 – Muschio quercino is recorded.^[2]
• 1869 – Muschi for the plant class in Tommaseo–Bellini.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. moss: a small, deep green plant growing in soft, dense mats in damp, shady places, on rocks and tree trunks.^[9][4]
2. (botany) A plant of the class of mosses, reproducing by spores; in the plural, with a capital, the class itself (Muschi).^[9][16]
3. A name for some lichens and other plants that look like moss.^[9]
4. A dull green colour; as an invariable adjective, of that colour: una giacca muschio.^[9]

Word family

• muscoso
• muschioso