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.

---

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.

(Other gods and goddesses 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.)
(Sandals, skin, and cloud infrastructure fly away.)
Hermes	:	🏳️
Zeus	:	👀 Oh, dear. 📢⚡⚡
(Another speed-of-light-adjacent sonic wind.)
Zeus	:	Terribly sorry about that. 📢⚡⚡
(Foundations and fibre optic cables fly away.)
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.

The Muses

Apparently, each one was properly named. Unlike, oh let's say, Muse Alpha, Muse Beta...

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

Here they are and what each one is "in charge of" or "assigned to":

1. Calliope: Epic poetry
2. Clio: History
3. Erato: Love poetry
4. Euterpe: Music and lyric poetry
5. Melpomene: Tragedy
6. Polyhymnia (or Polymnia): Sacred poetry and hymns
7. Terpsichore: Dance and choral song
8. Thalia: Comedy and pastoral poetry
9. Urania: Astronomy

   🤚 "Uranus"?

   Uranus is from "Ouranos" (ΟΥΡΑΝΟΣ), literally means "sky" or "heaven". Romans nicked it, became "URANUS" – pronounced not "Yur-ray-nus", but "Oo-rah-noos". But hey, the relevance of this matter is, at best, peripheral.

   🤚 How about "urine"?

   Urine is from Classical Latin "URINA" – "that which burns". Because ancient physicians thought pee had a burning or cleansing property. Urine was considered medicinal in both Greek and Roman traditions. Pee consists of ammonia (mild antiseptic), urea, and various salts.

   🤚 Why "pee"?

   "Pee" is from "to take a P" (started in 1600s-1700s, used as polite shorthand) — shorthand for "to take a piss". "Piss" is from Middle English "pissen". Taken from Old French "pissier". Way back to Vulgar Latin "pissiare". It's an imitative word (onomatopoeic). Literally mimicking the sound of urination ➡️ "pssssss".

   🤚 No, I mean why did they pee on the eyes?

   Oh! Well, someone had to be the first. That smug ordinal.

   This concludes the Urania's press conference. ⬅️ Did you somehow read "press" as "pees"? Anyway, do feel free to partake of your own biscuits and tea at leisure. (Urania didn't ask for this.)

In Hesiod's Theogony — Zeus spent nine consecutive nights with Mnemosyne, and each night produced one Muse, hence nine daughters. So, not quite born all at once, but rather one after the other — nine nights, nine Muses.

Hesiod = an ancient Greek poet (8th to 7th century BC), roughly contemporary with Homer. He is immortalised by later scribes centuries after his death. The scholars reconstructed it from copies of copies of copies of copies... of 9,999× more copies of later manuscripts. They didn't find any of Property of Hesiod, do not nick original manuscripts. It was over two millennia ago. Time. 🤷🤔

Back to the word, here is a brief etymological progression:

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.

   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.

   Moped Lad 🛵

   

   1 = G ➡️ E minor scale.

---

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. 🛵) Aha! 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! ⚔️🐝😵‍💫

---

All Roads Lead to Rome!

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

1 = B♭ ➡️ G minor scale.

(Acoustic guitar intro.) (Confident face. 😮‍💨) 🎤 Call BJ factor freezes stradespheeere! 🎤 Fractal Roman fork zinc dissect tea jaAAaam! 🎤 Traktor O Rohan disspank beneath thy treeaaad! 🎤 Nüor you crying in past the way Kwai Chaaaaang! (Confident face. 😮‍💨) 🎸🎹 (Acoustic guitar outro.)

Genre is named "Post-Apocalyptic Emo-Scientific Battle Hymn" or simply... that.

In short — you don't ask who Rohan is. Rohan arrives. Unannounced. Loud. And on a flaming traktor covered in runes. 🤷