muse

See also: Muse, musé, musė, muše, and Muße

English

WOTD – 27 February 2008

Pronunciation

• enPR: myo͞oz
  • IPA^(key): /mjuːz/
  • IPA^(key): /mjuz/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Homophones: mews, Meuse
• Rhymes: -uːz

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French muse, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin Mūsa, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa).

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. A source of inspiration.
2. (archaic) A poet; a bard.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 85:

     My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill,

     While comments of your praiſe richly compil'd,

     Reſerue their Character with goulden quill,

     And precious phraſe by all the Muſes fil'd.

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

Usage notes

• The plural musae can also be found, though it is much rarer than muses.

Synonyms

• (source of inspiration): Pierian spring

Related terms

• museum
• music

Translations

a source of inspiration

• Asturian: musa f
• Breton: awen f
• Catalan: musa (ca) f
• Czech: múza f
• Danish: muse
• Dutch: Muze
• Esperanto: muzo
• Finnish: muusa (fi), runotar (fi)
• French: muse (fr), égérie (fr) f
• Galician: musa f
• German: Muse (de) f
• Greek: μούσα (el) f (moúsa)
• Hungarian: múzsa (hu)
• Indonesian: ilham (id)
• Interlingua: musa
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: muse (it)
• Japanese: 熟考 (ja) (jyukkō)
• Latin: Musa
• Luxembourgish: Muse
• Maori: manawakura
• Norwegian: muse
• Occitan: musa f
• Polish: muza (pl) f
• Portuguese: musa (pt) f
• Russian: му́за (ru) f (múza)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: муза

  Roman: muza (sh)

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

Etymology 2

From Middle English musen, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French muser.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.
2. (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:muse.
3. (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomson

     Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

4. (transitive) To wonder at.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

     Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; for what I will, I will, and there an end.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus: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), nachsinnen (de), sinnieren (de)
• Indonesian: melamun (id), termenung (id)
• Italian: meditare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 熟考する (jyukkōsuru), 瞑想する (meisōsuru)
• Maori: whakaaroaro
• Polish: dumać (pl)
• Portuguese: divagar (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: meòraich
• Turkish: düşünceye dalmak (tr), derin derin düşünmek (tr), düşüncelere dalmak

to say with due consideration

• Czech: dumat (cs)
• Finnish: lausua (fi)
• German: sinnieren (de), nachdenklich sagen, nachsinnen (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: zastanawiać się (pl)
• Scottish Gaelic: meòraich

to think on; to meditate on

• Dutch: stilstaan bij
• German: nachsinnen (de), sinnieren (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: huritao, hurihuri, taute
• Spanish: cavilar (es), meditar (es)

to wonder at

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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 (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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

• Semu, emus, umes

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /myz/
• Homophones: musent, muses

Noun

muse f (plural muses)

1. artistic inspiration
2. muse (specific artistic subject)

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. third-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 of musa

Anagrams

• sume

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English mūs.

Noun

muse

1. Alternative form of mous

Etymology 2

From Latin Mūsa.

Noun

muse

1. Alternative form of Muse

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French musée, from Latin mūsēum, from Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse or museer, definite plural museene or musea)

1. Alternative form of musé

References

“muse” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From French musée, from Latin mūsēum, from Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse, definite plural musea)

1. Alternative form of musé

References

“muse” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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Spanish

Verb

muse

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of musirse.
2. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of musirse.