Muse

The English word muse. As also being used in these words:

• Amuse (verb)
• Amusement (noun)
• Muse-um = museum (noun)
• Muse-ic = music (noun)

🤔 and others.

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First Muse, the Noun

It stems from Greek ΜΟΥΣΑ (mu-omicron-upsilon-sigma-alpha: Mousa) — singular, each of the nine goddesses. As a group, they're the Mousai (mu-omicron-upsilon-sigma-alpha-iota: ΜΟΥΣΑI). They're the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the knowledge and creativity.

(Apollo, Prometheus, Athena, Hermes, and all others roll their shape-shifting eyes.)

(Hermes.) Why this confoundedly redundant assignment, O Sovereign Thunderer of Olympus?

(Zeus.) (Turns his head to Hermes.) Come again? 📢⚡⚡ (10 billion dBA. Lightning bolts all over the place.)

(Hermes.) (Sandals, skin, and infrastructure fly away.) 🏳️

(Zeus.) Terribly sorry about that. 📢⚡⚡

(Hermes.) (Reduced to H.) 👀

(Zeus.) (Looking at Metis, which resides in his belly.) Did the gentleman utter something? 📢⚡⚡

This "muse" is the "classy" one. It leads straight to music and museum. It's all about divine inspiration and the arts. Proper posh stuff, that.

Timeline:

ΜΟΥΣΑ (Classical Greek) ➡️ MVSA (Classical Latin) ➡️ muse (Old French, circa 12th century – can be found in Le Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure) ➡️ muse (late Middle English, circa 14th century – can be found in The House of Fame by Geoffrey Chaucer) ➡️ muse (now).

Therefore, the meaning of this first muse /mjuːz/ (noun):

1. Any of the nine mythological Greek (and forking Roman) deities, born to Zeus and Mnemosyne, who serve as the authorities over artistic and scientific endeavors.
   

   ⬆️ One of those ladies is called Muse. Assuming those are the Muses.

   Side Note

   The Romans were the original open-source pirates with marble statues. Well, according to the 18th-19th century scholars.

   Forking (from "forking Roman" ⬆️)

   1. Technical fork — as in forking the Greek repository of mythos and pushing their own Latin commits. "Gradually".
   2. Forking as in... well, you know — the ancient polite substitute when you want to call something a bloody travesty without using the Queen's censored vocabulary.

      (Riding a moped. Being overtaken discourteously on the road. 🛻🚫🛵)

      Distorted mandibular billboard! You visuognathic frontispiece misrepresentation!

      (Collar adjusted. Dignity reaffirmed. Moped on the pavement.)

      I made up "visuognathic".

      Visuognathic (adj.)

      Relating to the visual and jaw (gnathic) regions or functions.

      That is, pertaining to structures, expressions, or perceptions involving both facial appearance (visual aspect) and mandibular anatomy (gnathic region).

2. A human being or an abstract influence that acts as the primary origin of creative stimulus for a practitioner of the arts.

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Second Muse, the Verb

"To muse" (verb) means to be lost in thought, to ponder something quietly, often in a dreamy or reflective manner.

This stems from an Old French word, muser.

Google Search revealed this:

"...perhaps from medieval Latin musum..." Indeed, musum means "muzzle" or "snout".

"Muser" (Old French) means "to waste time" (perdre son temps) or "to loiter" (flâner). Take a look on CNRTL.

It leads to "amuse" and "amusement" in current English.

But how... is snout related to loitering? 🤔

Here's how:

The image is of an idle hound with its snout raised, staring vacantly — thus, to muser meant to stand idly with one's head in the air, distracted or lost in thought.

Thinking of Where's my snout at? Me face is lost without it. (Playing banjo. 🪕)

(Moped lad. 🛵) A-ha! We meet again, pantomimed anterior cephalic region!

Mūsāre

Perhaps if it stemmed from Mediaeval Latin "Mūsāre" ➡️ the forked Greek ΜΟΥΣΑ (Mousa), it would be... streamlined. You know, those goddesses of thought, inspiration, and poetry – one goddess probably does routine long, distracted walks in the olive groves. 🤔 Instead of... a dog with its snout up in the air? But hey, "perhaps".

As you can see: mū‑/‑sā‑/‑re to mu‑ser isn't a huge leap. But mu‑sum to mu‑ser? That's "m" to "r".

But indeed, this is like forcing "night" and "knight" are related because of the similar pronunciation.

By that logic, good knight means... a very well-behaved evening. ☠️

(Barges in.) Fear not, milady — I am Sir 10:37 PM! The night shall be well beehived! ⚔️🐝😵‍💫

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All Roads Lead to Rome!

🤦 Well, which part? I mean, Rome isn't a dot, mind.