Muscle

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Dr. Goodword
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Muscle

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Jan 08, 2015 11:09 pm

• muscle •

Pronunciation: mês-sêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A fibrous tissue in the body that contracts and relaxes to effect movement. 2. Muscular strength, as in 'enough muscle to lift a car'. 3. (Slang) Power, influence, authority, as in 'put some muscle behind your words'.

Notes: Today's Good Word may also be used as a verb meaning "to force", as 'to muscle your way past the guards'. It comes with two adjectives, muscular and, though it is rarely used, muscly. A person with overdeveloped muscles may be called muscle-bound and, if they build their muscles at the expense of their intellect, muscle-headed. Remember the C in the spelling of this word; mussel refers to the black clam-like bivalve.

In Play: Muscles are involved in all animal and human motion: "Every muscle in my body hurts from just walking around the block." Muscle emerged in many compound nouns: "Hank is a gorgeous muscle-bound hunk who thinks Paris is the capital of Germany." It may be used metaphorically to refer to power or influence: "I don't have enough muscle in the company to get my ideas on policy across."

Word History: How do you like the image of little animals crawling around under your skin? Well, brace yourself, for today's Good Word originated in Latin musculus "little mouse", the diminutive of mus "mouse". Before you ask: yes, it does come from the same Proto-Indo-European word as English mouse and German Maus. So does musk, and the word for the highly fragrant Muscat grapes, and hence the wine made from them, muscatel. However, musk comes to us via a more sinuous trail from Latin muscus "musk". Muscus was borrowed from Greek moskhos, which the Greeks borrowed from Persian mušk. It is likely that Persian got the word from Sanskrit muskah "scrotum", an interesting metaphor for "mouse". (Barbara Kelly had enough intellectual muscle here at alphaDictionary to get today's Good Word through to us. Thank you, Barbara.)
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Muscle

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:25 pm

I daily see a couple of field mice around my bird feeders.
Interesting connections here.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

Perry Lassiter
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Re: Muscle

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:30 pm

Obvious question is do mussels have muscles andif mussels have muscles, can one mussel out-muscle another mussel with mussed hair?
pl

LukeJavan8
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Re: Muscle

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:02 pm

....lots of time on your hands today????
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

Perry Lassiter
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Re: Muscle

Postby Perry Lassiter » Sun Jan 11, 2015 9:52 pm

I muscled myself some space.
pl

Philip Hudson
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Re: Muscle

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Jan 12, 2015 1:51 am

The origin of the word "muscle" was what got me interested in etymology when I was in grade school. Thanks for the reminder.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Muscle

Postby LukeJavan8 » Mon Jan 12, 2015 1:19 pm

Your brain muscled you back in time.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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