musk
English
Etymology
From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian [script needed] (mwšk' /mušk/) whence Persian مشک (mošk). Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ, “mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /mʌsk/
Audio (AU): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌsk
- Homophone: MuSK
Noun
musk (countable and uncountable, plural musks)
- A greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
- 1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iii:
- Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into what form you pleaſe; this, if your breath bee not to valiant, will make you ſmell as ſweete as my Ladies dogge.
- A similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
- A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.
- The odour of musk.
- The musk deer (genus Moschus).
- The musk plant (Mimulus moschatus).
- A plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.
- A plant of the genus Muscari; grape hyacinth.
- (slang, colloquial, vulgar) The scent of human genitalia when aroused or unwashed.
- I was so excited I could smell my own musk.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
greasy secretion with powerful odour
|
Verb
musk (third-person singular simple present musks, present participle musking, simple past and past participle musked)
- (transitive) To perfume with musk.
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
musk
- Alternative form of muske
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Middle Persian
- English terms derived from Sanskrit
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ʌsk
- Rhymes:English/ʌsk/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- English colloquialisms
- English vulgarities
- Min Nan terms with redundant script codes
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Asparagus family plants
- en:Even-toed ungulates
- en:Geraniales order plants
- en:Scents
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns