Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 77. The word origin today is
muscle. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. Today the definition of a
muscle is literally a piece of flesh or meat that connects one bone to another.
Okay. Let's continue. The origin of the word muscle goes all the way back to
Latin. The Latin word was musculus.. Okay. And at that time it literally meant a
small mouse. Okay. In former times, some people believed if one flexes his or
her muscles, you know, like in our modern times when we try to ... we sometimes also
say to make a muscle. You know, try to make the muscle look big. To make a
muscle. That's to flex their muscles or you can flex other muscles. You see the
bodybuilders sometimes you know , bend over and try to make their muscles stand
up. That means to flex ones muscles. All right. So if one flexes his or her
muscles, especially the biceps. Now this of course here. This is your bicep,
especially the biceps. It appeared to look like a mouse under a cloth or
carpet. Yeah.So this is really strange it's weird that that the word muscle
actually came from mouse. Because usually we think ... we don't think of mice as very
strong. We think of them as kind of weak. You know, if anything maybe a rat would
be stronger. But, but not , not a mouse, but that's really where the word muscle came
from. So why did they think that. It's kind of weird. I don't know if I can show
you very well because I don't actually have the best muscles. But what they
meant by that is if you do it slowly with your bicep , you can see the muscle
moving here. And they thought that that actually looked like a mouse. The
movement of a mouse under like a cloth or under, under something. So this is
where the word muscle actually comes from. Okay. Let's continue. All right. So
in Latin "mus" was mouse. Just must by itself
and the word musculus, okay was the diminutive form meaning a small mouse. The
diminutive form you know, sometimes we we add like a word ending to make it
seem smaller like "ette" Sometimes in English which I think we get from French
can mean that you know something is smaller or something like that. So it's a
diminutive form. Okay. Here. Yes so this ended up be passed down from middle
French to English. And then you know, it eventually came what today we call
muscle. So it's very, very ironic. That muscle, the word muscle actually comes
from mouse. It's, it's more ironic when I think, I think it told you a long time
ago when I was a little kid there used to be a cartoon called Mighty Mouse. You
know, it was a bit of a joke he was like a Superman Mouse. But maybe, maybe there's
really more of a connection there then it was previously thought. All right.
Let's continue here. They say in Greece there was also a similar word I think
it'd be pronounced 'Mys" that meant both mouse and muscle in Greek. So both the
Greeks and the Romans actually probably thought this in former times. And we just
have one example of the word muscle today. You know, that's a common word
everybody should know this. Body builders likes to flex their muscles. So remember,
we also say to make a muscle. Okay . Anyway I hope you got it. I hope you found it to
be very informative and interesting. Thanks for your time. Bye-bye.