musso

Forms

mussō (present infinitive mussāre, perfect active mussāvī, supine mussātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The OLD and the TLL take it as borrowed from Ancient Greek μύζω (múzō, “to mutter, moan”), adapted into Latin, following Leumann.^[2][3] Wiktionary instead derives it from an imitative root Proto-Indo-European *mur- (“to mutter”).^[1] Varro, citing Ennius, explained it as what the dumb do, saying no more than “mu”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Mercator, of speaking now with loud shouts, now in a mutter.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to speak low, mutter or whisper, often in discontent, as in Lucretius, and in Livy of people asking one another under their breath.^[2] Virgil uses it of bees humming round the doors of the hive.^[2] It also means to do no more than mutter, to keep quiet about something, and to hum and haw in doubt, as Virgil's fathers who weep and mutter while the youth cry for arms, and with an infinitive to hesitate, as those who know what fortune brings but hesitate to say it.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is not in Cicero or Caesar.^[5] Varro has a deponent form.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of muttering.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of muttering.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of bees humming and of hesitating to speak.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of people murmuring.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To speak low, mutter, whisper, especially in discontent.^[2][5][1]
2. Of bees, to hum.^[2]
3. To do no more than mutter, keep silent; to keep quiet about.^[2][5][1]
4. To mutter in doubt, hum and haw; with an infinitive, to hesitate.^[2][1]

Word family

• mussātiō
• mussitō

Related words

• mussitābundus
• mussitātiō
• mussitātor
• mūtus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press