musca

See also: MUSCA, Musca, muscã, muscă, and mușca

Latin

musca (a fly)

Etymology

From a Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mu-, *mew-. Cognates with the Sanskrit मशक (maśáka), Old Church Slavonic моуха (muxa), and the Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa, “a fly”) of which μυΐσκη (muḯskē) may be a diminutive form. Confer the German Mücke (“midge”) and English midge, midget.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmus.ka/, [ˈmʊs̠kä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmus.ka/, [ˈmuskä]

Noun

musca f (genitive muscae); first declension

1. a fly (insect)

   Puer, abige muscas.

   Repel those flies, boy.

2. (transferred meaning) an inquisitive or prying people

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	musca	muscae
Genitive	muscae	muscārum
Dative	muscae	muscīs
Accusative	muscam	muscās
Ablative	muscā	muscīs
Vocative	musca	muscae

Derived terms

• muscārium
• muscārius

Descendants

• Aromanian: muscã
• Asturian: mosca
• Catalan: mosca
• Dalmatian: muasca
• Franco-Provençal: mouche
• French: mouche
• Friulian: moscje
• Galician: mosca
• Italian: mosca
• Norman: moûque

• Occitan: mosca
• Portuguese: mosca
• Romanian: muscă
• Romansch: mustga
• Sardinian: musca
• Sicilian: musca
• Spanish: mosca
• Venetian: mósca
• Walloon: moxhe

References

• “musca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “musca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• musca in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• musca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• musca in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “musca”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

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Middle English

Noun

musca

1. Alternative form of muske

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Romanian

Noun

musca f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of muscă