Advertisement

Origin and history of muzzle

muzzle(n.)

late 14c., mosel, "device put over an animal's mouth to stop it from biting, eating, or rooting," from Old French musel "muzzle," also "snout, nose" (12c., Modern French museau), from muse "muzzle," from Gallo-Roman *musa "snout" (source also of Provençal mus, Old Spanish mus, Italian muso), a word of unknown origin, possibly related to Latin morsus "bite" (but OED finds "serious difficulties" with this).

Meaning "projecting jaws and nose of the head of an animal" is from early 15c.; sense of "open end of a firearm" is recorded from 1560s. Muzzle-loader "gun loaded from the muzzle" (opposed to breech-loader) is by 1858.

muzzle(v.)

"to put a muzzle on, bind or confine the mouth of to prevent from biting or eating," early 15c., moselen, from muzzle (n.). Figurative use, "to gag, silence," is from 1610s. Related: Muzzled; muzzling.

also from early 15c.

Entries linking to muzzle

musette(n.)

late 14c., "small bagpipe," from Old French musette "bagpipe" (13c.), from muser "to play the bagpipe, make music," from mus "mouth, muzzle," from Medieval Latin musum (see muzzle (n.)). By 1788 as "a composition for or as though for a musette," a quiet pastoral melody, usually in imitation of a bagpipe, from this sense in French.

MUSETTE. The name of an air generally written in common-time, and the character of which is always soft and sweet. From the style of this air, dances were formerly invented of a similar cast, and which were also called Musettes. Musette was also the name formerly given to a small kind of bagpipe much used in most countries of Europe, the performers on which were called Musars. [Thomas Busby, "A Complete Dictionary of Music," 1806]
unmuzzled(adj.)

"loosen from a muzzle, remove a muzzle from," also figurative, "free from restraint;" c. 1600, from un- (1) "not" + past participle of muzzle (v.) or else a past participle of unmuzzle (v.), which also is attested from c. 1600.

    Advertisement

    More to explore

    gag
    mid-15c., transitive, "to choke, strangle" (someone), possibly imitative and perhaps influenced by Old Norse gag-hals "with head thrown back." The sense of "stop a person's mouth by thrusting something into it" is first attested c. 1500. Intransitive sense of "to retch" is from 1
    mull
    Old Norse muli "a jutting crag, projecting ridge (between two valleys)," which probably is identical with muli "snout, muzzle...The Norse word is related to Old Frisian mula, Middle Dutch mule, muul, Old High German mula, German Maul "muzzle, mouth....
    bayonet
    1610s, originally a type of flat dagger; as a soldiers' steel stabbing weapon fitted to the muzzle of a firearm, from 1670s...
    muse
    literally "to stand with one's nose in the air" (or, possibly, "to sniff about" like a dog who has lost the scent), from muse "muzzle...
    rostrum
    Roman republic, over Antium, in 338 B.C.E., and the Latin word's older sense is "end of a ship's prow," literally "beak, muzzle...
    head
    Old English heafod "top of the body," also "upper end of a slope," also "chief person, leader, ruler; capital city," from Proto-Germanic *haubid (source also of Old Saxon hobid, Old Norse hofuð, Old Frisian haved, Middle Dutch hovet, Dutch hoofd, Old High German houbit, German Ha
    constraint
    late 14c., constreinte, "distress, oppression," a sense now obsolete, from Old French constreinte "binding, constraint, compulsion" (Modern French contrainte), fem. noun from constreint, past participle of constreindre, from Vulgar Latin *constrinctus, from Latin constrictus, pas
    snout
    early 13c., "trunk or projecting nose of an animal, the nose or jaws when protrusive," not found in Old English, from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch snute "snout," from Proto-Germanic *snut- (source also of German Schnauze, Norwegian snut, Danish snude "snout"). Throughout th

    Share muzzle

    Advertisement
    Trending
    Dictionary entries near muzzle
    Advertisement