Origin and history of mussel

mussel(n.)

"edible bivalve mollusk," Middle English muscle, from Old English muscle, musscel, from Late Latin muscula (source of Old French musle, Modern French moule, Middle Dutch mosscele, Dutch mossel, Old High German muscula, German Muschel), from Latin musculus "mussel," literally "little mouse," also "muscle;" like muscle, derived from mus "mouse" on the perceived similarity of size and shape (see mouse (n.)). The modern spelling, distinguishing the word from muscle, is recorded from c. 1600 but was not fully established until 1870s.

Entries linking to mussel

mouse(n.)

Middle English mous, from Old English mus "small rodent," also "muscle of the arm" (compare muscle (n.)); from Proto-Germanic *mus (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Danish, Swedish mus, Dutch muis, German Maus "mouse").

This is from PIE *mus-, the old Indo-European name of the creature, retained in several language families (source also of Sanskrit mus "mouse, rat," Old Persian mush "mouse," Old Church Slavonic mysu, Latin mus, Lithuanian muse "mouse," Greek mys "mouse, muscle").

Plural form mice (Old English mys) shows effects of i-mutation. As a type of something timid or weak, from late 14c. Contrasted with man (n.) from 1620s (nor man nor mouse).

The meaning "black eye" (or other discolored lump on the body) is attested by 1842. The computer sense of "small device moved by the hand over a flat surface to maneuver a cursor or arrow on a display screen" is from 1965, though the word has been applied to other devices resembling a mouse in shape since 1750, mainly in nautical use.

Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus [Horace]

murex(n.)

kind of shellfish which yields a purple dye, 1580s, from Latin murex (plural murices) "purple fish, purple dye," probably cognate with Greek myax "sea mussel," a word of unknown origin, perhaps related to mys "mouse" (see muscle (n.) and mussel).

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