musculous

English

Etymology

From late Middle English, from Middle French musculeux (“composed of muscle”), from Latin mūsculōsus (“muscular, fleshy”), from mūsculus (“a little mouse; a muscle”) +‎ -ōsus (“-ous, -ose”, adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌ.skjʊl.əs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmʌ.skjəl.əs/
• Homophone: musculus
• Rhymes: -ʌskjʊləs

Adjective

musculous (comparative more musculous, superlative most musculous)

1. (now rare, relational) Made up of muscle or muscle tissue; muscular. [from 15th c.]
   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon, Observ. XXXIX. Of the Eyes and Head of a Grey drone-Fly, and of several other creatures, page 177:

     [T]he rest of the capacity of the clusters was […] in others fill'd with some kind of substance; in blue Flies, with a reddish musculous substance, with fibres tending from the center or bottom outwards […].

2. (now rare) Characterised by well-developed muscles; muscular, muscly. [from 17th c.]
3. (obsolete, relational) Pertaining to muscle; involving the use of muscles; muscular. [17th–18th c.]

Derived terms

• muscular

References

• “musculous”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “musculous”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.