muse

See also Muse, musé, and Muße

English

WOTD – 27 February 2008    

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: myo͞oz, IPA: /mjuːz/, X-SAMPA: /mju:z/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: mews, Meuse
• Rhymes: -uːz

Etymology 1

From Middle French muse, from Latin Mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Mousa).

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. A source of inspiration.
2. (archaic) A poet; a bard.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

Translations

a source of inspiration

• Breton: awen (br) f
• Danish: muse (da)
• Dutch: Muze (nl)
• Finnish: muusa (fi), runotar (fi)
• French: muse (fr)
• German: Muse (de) f
• Greek: μούσα (el) (moúsa) f
• Hungarian: múzsa (hu)
• Interlingua: musa (ia)
• Italian: muse (it)
• Latin: Musa (la)

• Luxembourgish: Muse (lb)
• Norwegian: muse (no)
• Polish: muza (pl) f
• Portuguese: musa (pt) f
• Russian: муза f (Muza)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: муза (sh)

  Latin: muza (sh)

• Spanish: musa (es) f
• Swedish: musa (sv) c
• Welsh: awen (cy) f

Related terms

• museum
• music

Etymology 2

First attested in 1340. From Old French muser.

Verb

muse (third-person singular simple present muses, present participle musing, simple past and past participle mused)

1. (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.
2. (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
   • For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.
3. (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
   • Thomson

     Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.

4. (transitive) To wonder at.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:ponder

Related terms

• muser
• musing

Translations

to become lost in thought

• Czech: dumat (cs)
• Dutch: mijmeren (nl), nadenken (nl)
• Finnish: pohtia (fi), haikailla (fi), mietiskellä (fi), tuumia (fi)
• French: songer (fr)
• German: grübeln (de)

• Polish: dumać (pl)
• Portuguese: divagar (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: meòraich (gd)
• Turkish: düşünceye dalmak (tr), derin derin düşünmek (tr), düşüncelere dalmak (tr)

to say with due consideration

• Czech: dumat (cs)
• Polish: zastanawiać się (pl)

• Scottish Gaelic: meòraich (gd)

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xii:

     still he sate long time astonished / As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 416:

     He fell into a muse and pulled his upper lip.

Etymology 3

From French musse. See muset.

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. A gap or hole in a hedge, fence, etc. through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.

   Find a hare without a muse. (old proverb)

Anagrams

• emus, umes

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /myz/, X-SAMPA: /myz/
• Homophones: musent, muses

Verb

muse

1. first-person singular present indicative of muser
2. third-person singular present indicative of muser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of muser
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of muser
5. second-person singular imperative of muser

Anagrams

• émus, meus, mues, seum

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Italian

Noun

muse f

1. Plural form of musa

Anagrams

• sume