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MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
014
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
nounexact headword
muscle
A body tissue or organ whose English name descends through French from Latin musculus, a diminutive of mūs “mouse.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
mussel
A bivalve mollusk whose English history runs through Middle English muscle and Old English muscelle into the same Latin mouse family as muscle.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
mouse
The inherited English name of the small rodent, continued from Old English mūs and the reconstructed Indo-European *mūs- family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
μυς
The Modern Greek anatomical word for muscle, continued from Ancient Greek μῦς, which could name both a mouse and a body muscle.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗028
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
muscle
contractile body tissue; later strength or coercive power
- DATE
- 14th century–today
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle English / Indo-European
muscle
a muscle or muscular organ
- DATE
- Middle English
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Old French / Indo-European
muscle
muscle
- DATE
- Old French
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle English / Indo-European
muscle
a mussel
- DATE
- Middle English
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*mūs-
mouse; also the family behind specialized muscle words
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 4
Latin / Indo-European
musculus
little mouse; muscle; also a mussel name
- DATE
- Latin antiquity
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 2
Modern Greek / Indo-European
μυς
mysa body muscle; in learned use, also a mouse
- DATE
- Modern Greek
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Ancient Greek / Indo-European
μῦς
mŷsmouse; also a muscle of the body
- DATE
- Ancient Greek literary record
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
039
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 5
openprobableexact word
What exactly resembled a mouse?
The naming may refer to the shape of a muscle, a tendon, or movement visible beneath the skin; the reviewed sources do not select one mechanism as secure.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Is musculus really a “little mouse”?
Latin musculus is morphologically the diminutive of mūs “mouse.”
resolvedestablishedexact word
Did anatomical muscle reach English through French?
The anatomical English word passed through Middle English and Old French from Latin musculus.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Do mussel and muscle share the Latin mouse family?
The English words have distinct immediate histories but converge in the Latin musculus / mūscula family derived from mūs.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Are Greek mouse and muscle merely accidental homonyms?
The reviewed Liddell–Scott entry treats μῦς as one lexical entry with both rodent and body-muscle senses, and Modern Greek explicitly derives both learned senses from Ancient Greek.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 4
RANK 172GRADE Aexact ranked word
A muscle was a “little mouse.”
Latin musculus is a diminutive of mūs “mouse.” The derivation is secure; the exact resemblance mechanism remains qualified.
RANK 88GRADE Acontrarian claim
Mussel and muscle were once spelling twins.
Middle English could spell the shellfish muscle. The shellfish and anatomical words ultimately belong to Latin’s mouse-derived musculus family, though the naming resemblance itself is not fully recoverable.
RANK 149GRADE Aranked reveal
English mouse is not a Latin loan.
English mouse follows its inherited Germanic line while Latin mūs is a cognate branch. Their resemblance reflects common ancestry, not a direct Latin-to-English borrowing.
RANK 168GRADE Acontrarian claim
In Greek, a muscle is still a mouse.
Ancient Greek μῦς named both the rodent and a body muscle. Modern Greek μυς preserves the anatomical branch and records the mouse sense as learned vocabulary.
043
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
editorial reference7 CLAIM LINKS
Muscle and Mussel — Homophones with More Than One Syllable
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary7 CLAIM LINKS
Muscle — Word History
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary7 CLAIM LINKS
Muscle — Word History
American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗052
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints MUSCLE as a headword and defines its role in voluntary animal motion.
muscle / muscle / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use record for muscle
muscle / muscle / 14th century
Muscle — Word Historyexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.