musk

English

Etymology

From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian *mušk; compare 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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʌsk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌsk

Noun

musk (countable and uncountable, plural musks)

1. 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.

2. A similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
3. A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.
4. The odour of musk.
5. The musk deer (genus Moschus).
6. The musk plant ().
7. A plant of the genus (); the musky heronsbill.
8. A plant of the genus Muscari; grape hyacinth.
9. (slang, colloquial, vulgar) The scent of human genitalia when aroused or unwashed.

   I was so excited I could smell my own musk.

Derived terms

• musk okra, musk seed

Related terms

• muscat
• nutmeg
• mouse
• muscle

Translations

greasy secretion with powerful odour

• Arabic: , مِسْك m (misk), مَشْمُوم m (mašmūm)
• Armenian: մուշկ (hy) (mušk)
• Catalan: almesc (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 麝香 (se⁶ hoeng¹)

  Mandarin: 麝香 (zh) (shèxiāng)

  Min Nan: 麝香 (siā-hiuⁿ)

• Czech: pižmo (cs) n
• Dutch: muskus (nl) f
• Esperanto: mosko
• Estonian: muskus
• Finnish: myski (fi)
• French: musc (fr) m
• German: Moschus (de) m, Bisam m
• Hindi: कस्तूरी (hi) f (kastūrī)
• Hungarian: pézsma (hu)
• Ido: mosko (io)
• Irish: musc m
• Italian: muschio (it) m
• Japanese: 麝香 (じゃこう, jakō)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Javanese: dhèdhès (jv), kasturi (jv)
• Korean: 사향 (sahyang) (麝香 (ko))
• Latin: moschus m
• Persian: مشک (fa) (mošk)
• Polish: piżmo (pl) n
• Portuguese: almíscar (pt) m
• Romanian: mosc (ro) n
• Russian: му́скус (ru) (múskus)
• Sanskrit: कस्तूरी (sa) f (kastūrī)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: mošus (sh) m

• Spanish: almizcle (es)
• Swahili: zabadi (sw)
• Swedish: mysk (sv) c
• Tagalog: almiskle
• Telugu: కస్తూరి (te) (kastūri)
• Tibetan: གླ་རྩི་ (gla rtsi)
• Turkish: misk (tr)
• Ukrainian: му́скус m (múskus)
• Urdu: مشک m (muśk)
• Vietnamese: xạ hương (vi) (麝香)

Verb

musk (third-person singular simple present musks, present participle musking, simple past and past participle musked)

1. (transitive) To perfume with musk.

Anagrams

• skum

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Middle English

Noun

musk

1. Alternative form of muske