muguet

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French muguet.

Noun

muguet (plural muguets)

1. Lily of the valley.
   • 1997 June 30, N. Groom, New Perfume Handbook, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 193:

     Muguet, a perfume obtained from the highly scented flowers of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), a small […]

   • 2021 April 20, Hilary Miflin, The Green Fuse: …our deep connection with the power of plants, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 12:

     ... flowers and spurges – companion planting at its best. In the easternmost corner behind the gate, she had planted a large clump of muguets, Christmas hellebores and a large yucca plant. Down the valley beyond this garden was her orchard […]

   • 2021 November 9, Sarah McCartney, Samantha Scriven, The Perfume Companion: The Definitive Guide to Choosing Your Next Scent, Frances Lincoln Children's Books, →ISBN, page 85:

     Diorissimo by Dior / Still the muguet to beat / Perfumer[:] Edmond Roudnitska / ££ / Diorissimo wasn't the first lily of the valley (muguet) fragrance, but very few of us would bet against it. In the 1940s, Edmond Roudnitska created some downright dirty chypre fragrances: […] Five minutes later, it settles down to pure, clear, unmistakable muguet and stays like that for hours.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from French muguet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [muˈɣe̞t]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [muˈɣət]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [muˈɣɛt]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [muˈɣet]

Noun

muguet m (plural muguets)

1. (botany) lily of the valley

   Synonym: lliri de maig

2. (pathology) thrush (oral candidiasis)

Further reading

• “muguet”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

French

muguet

Etymology

From Old French muguete, muguede (as in nois muguete (“nutmeg”)), from Latin muscāta, feminine of muscātus (“musky”), from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian mwšk' (/⁠*mušk⁠/, “musk”), ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland being similar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /my.ɡɛ/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Paris):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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Noun

muguet m (plural muguets)

1. lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis)
2. (medicine) thrush (oral yeast infection, oral candidiasis)

   Synonyms: candidose, blanchet

3. (dated) dandy

Descendants

• → English: muguet
• → Catalan: muguet
• → Italian: mughetto
• → Turkish: müge

Further reading

• “muguet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012