mouse
See also: mouše
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s.
cognates
Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Swedish mus, Danish mus, Norwegian mus, Icelandic mús, Faroese mús).
Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš),Northern Kurdish mişk,Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ).
The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.
Pronunciation edit
- Noun
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: mous, IPA(key): /maʊs/
- (Canada) IPA(key): /mʌʊs/
- Rhymes: -aʊs
- Verb
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: mous, mouz, IPA(key): /maʊs/, /maʊz/
- (Canada) IPA(key): /mʌʊs/, /mʌʊz/
- Rhymes: -aʊs, -aʊz
Noun edit
mouse (plural mice or (computer) mouses)
- Any small rodent of the genus Mus.
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
- At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
- (informal) A member of the many small rodent and marsupial species resembling such a rodent.
- A quiet or shy person.
- (computing) (plural mice or, rarely, mouses) An input device that is moved over a pad or other flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a graphical display.
- move the mouse over the icon(that is, move the mouse so that the pointer moves over the icon)
- (boxing) A facial hematoma or black eye.
- (nautical) A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out.
- (obsolete) A familiar term of endearment.
- c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 4:
- Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed, / Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse
- A match used in firing guns or blasting.
- (set theory) A small model of (a fragment of) Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with desirable properties (depending on the context).
- (historical) A small cushion for a woman's hair.
- Part of a hind leg of beef, next to the round.
- Synonym: mouse buttock
Hypernyms edit
- (small rodent): rodent
Hyponyms edit
- birch mouse (Sicista spp.)
- bristly mouse
- cactus mouse
- church mouse
- Cypriot mouse
- deer mouse
- dormouse
- fat mouse
- field mouse
- harvest mouse
- hopping mouse
- house mouse (Mus musculus)
- Java mouse-deer
- kangaroo mouse (Microdipodops spp.)
- meadow jumping mouse
- mouse-goat
- optical mouse
- pouched mouse
- sleep like a mouse
- spiny mouse
- St Kilda field mouse
- Taiwan field mouse
- vesper mouse
- woolly mouse opossum
- yellow-necked field mouse
- zebra mouse
Coordinate terms edit
- (small rodent): rat
- (input device): joystick, trackpad, trackball, pointing stick
Derived terms edit
Terms derived from mouse (noun)
- a cat in gloves catches no mice
- anonymouse
- antimouse
- Arctic mouse-ear
- are you a man or a mouse
- (as) quiet as a mouse
- Baker's small-toothed harvest mouse
- bastard big-footed mouse
- big-footed mouse
- bit by a barn mouse
- cat-and-mouse
- cat and mouse
- churchmouse
- cotton mouse
- Count Branicki's mouse
- creepmouse
- Darling Downs hopping mouse
- demouse
- desert mouse
- Doogie mouse
- dormouse
- dust mouse
- fieldmouse
- flindermouse
- flitter-mouse
- flittermouse
- flying mouse
- Formosan wood mouse
- giant mouse lemur
- glacier mouse
- grasshopper mouse
- greater big-footed mouse
- greater mouse-eared bat
- intermouse
- intramouse
- is there a mouse in your pocket
- joint mouse
- jumping mouse
- knockout mouse
- lab mouse
- laboratory mouse
- left-mouse
- Madame Berthe's mouse lemur
- marsupial mouse
- meadow mouse
- mechanical mouse
- mermouse
- mer-mouse
- mice-less
- micromouse
- Mitchell's hopping mouse
- Mosley
- mousable
- mouseable
- mousebird
- mouse bungee
- mouse button
- mouse click
- mouseclick
- mouse-colored antshrike
- mouse-deer
- mouse deer
- mousedom
- mouse-ear
- mouse-eared bat
- mousefall
- mousefish
- mousefucker
- mouse gun
- mousehole
- mousehood
- mouse jiggler
- Mouseketeer
- mousekin
- mousekind
- mouse lemur
- mouseless
- mouselet
- mouselike
- mouseling
- mouselook
- mouse mat
- mouse melon
- mouse mill
- mouseness
- mouse opossum
- mouse-over
- mouseover
- mousepad, mouse pad
- mouse potato
- mousepox
- mouseprint
- mouse print
- mouseproof
- mouser
- mousery
- mousesicle
- mouse-sight
- mouse slip
- mouse spider
- mousetail
- mousetrap
- mouse wheel
- mousework
- mousie
- mousy
- mute as a mouse
- nonmouse
- northern birch mouse
- nouse
- oldfield mouse
- oncomouse
- painted bristly mouse
- Petter's big-footed mouse
- play cat and mouse
- pocket mouse
- poor as a church mouse
- premouse
- quiet as a church mouse
- reremouse
- ricefield mouse
- right-mouse
- rock mouse
- sable mouse
- seamouse
- sea mouse
- shrewmouse
- striped field mouse
- strong enough to trot a mouse on
- sugar mouse
- supermouse
- the best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray
- the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry
- timid as a mouse
- water mouse
- when the cat's away the mice will play
- white-footed mouse
- wood mouse
- woodmouse
- yellow-necked mouse
- you got a mouse in your pocket
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
Descendants of mouse in other languages
Translations edit
rodent of the genus Mus
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shy person
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computing: input device
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb edit
mouse (third-person singular simple present mouses, present participle mousing, simple past and past participle moused)
- (intransitive) To move cautiously or furtively, in the manner of a mouse (the rodent) (frequently used in the phrasal verb to mouse around).
- (intransitive) To hunt or catch mice (the rodents), usually of cats. [from 12th c.]
- (transitive, nautical) To close the mouth of a hook by a careful binding of marline or wire.
- Captain Higgins moused the hook with a bit of marline to prevent the block beckets from falling out under slack.
- (intransitive, computing) To navigate by means of a computer mouse.
- 1988, MacUser, volume 4:
- I had just moused to the File menu and the pull-down menu repeated the menu bar's hue a dozen shades lighter.
- 2009, Daniel Tunkelang, Faceted Search, page 35:
- Unlike the Flamenco work, the Relation Browser allows users to quickly explore a document space using dynamic queries issued by mousing over facet elements in the interface.
- (obsolete, nonce word, transitive) To tear, as a cat devours a mouse.
- c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- [Death] mousing the flesh of men.
Derived terms edit
terms derived from mouse (verb)
Related terms edit
Translations edit
to mouse around
to catch mice
|
to close the mouth of a hook
Further reading edit
mouse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - mouse (computing) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Category:Mus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons - Category:Computer mouse on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
Mice on Wikiquote.Wikiquote 
Mus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
Anagrams edit
Chinese edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mouse
Synonyms edit
| Variety | Location | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 鼠標器 Mainland China, 滑鼠 Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia | |
| Mandarin | Taiwan | 滑鼠 |
| Malaysia | 滑鼠 | |
| Singapore | 滑鼠 | |
| Cantonese | Hong Kong | 滑鼠, mouse |
| Taishan (Guanghai) | 鼠標 | |
| Hakka | Miaoli (N. Sixian) | 滑鼠 |
| Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian) | 滑鼠 | |
| Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu) | 滑鼠 | |
| Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu) | 滑鼠 | |
| Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping) | 滑鼠 | |
| Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an) | 滑鼠 | |
| Southern Min | Xiamen | 鼠標 |
| Quanzhou | 鼠標 | |
| Zhangzhou | 鼠標 | |
| Kinmen | 滑鼠 | |
Italian edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English mouse.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mouse m (invariable)
Derived terms edit
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Noun edit
mouse
- Alternative form of mous
Portuguese edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English mouse.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mouse m (plural mouses)
- (Brazil, computer hardware) mouse (input device used to move a pointer on the screen)
- Synonym: (Portugal) rato
- (Brazil, loosely) pointer; cursor (moving icon that indicates the position of the mouse)
Quotations edit
For quotations using this term, see Citations:mouse.
Romanian edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English mouse.
Noun edit
mouse n (plural mouse-uri)
Declension edit
Declension of mouse
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
| nominative/accusative | (un) mouse | mouse-ul | (niște) mouse-uri | mouse-urile |
| genitive/dative | (unui) mouse | mouse-ului | (unor) mouse-uri | mouse-urilor |
| vocative | mouse-ule | mouse-urilor | ||
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English mouse. Doublet of mur.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mouse m (plural mouses)
- (computing, chiefly Latin America) mouse (input device)
- Synonym: ratón
Usage notes edit
- According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.