muse

See also: Muse, musé, musė, muše, and Muße

English

WOTD – 27 February 2008

Pronunciation

• enPR: myo͞oz
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /mjuːz/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /mjuz/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Homophones: mews, Meuse
• Rhymes: -uːz

Etymology 1

From Middle French muse, from Latin Mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa).

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. (of people) A source of inspiration.

   Yoko Ono was John Lennon's wife, lover, and muse.

2. (archaic) A poet; a bard.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 85”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill,
     While comments of your praiſe richly compil'd,
     Reſerue their Character with goulden quill,
     And precious phraſe by all the Muſes fil’d.

   • 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

     So may some gentle Muse With lucky words favour my destined urn

Synonyms

• (source of inspiration): Pierian spring

Related terms

• museum
• music

Translations

a source of inspiration

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: musa f
• Belarusian: му́за f (múza)
• Breton: awen f
• Bulgarian: му́за (bg) f (múza)
• Catalan: musa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 繆斯／缪斯 (zh) (Miùsī)

• Czech: múza f
• Danish: muse c
• Dutch: muze (nl) f
• Esperanto: muzo
• Finnish: muusa (fi), runotar (fi)
• French: muse (fr) f, égérie (fr) f
• Galician: musa f
• German: Muse (de) f
• Greek: μούσα (el) f (moúsa)
• Hebrew: מוזה m (múza)
• Hungarian: múzsa (hu)
• Indonesian: ilham (id)
• Interlingua: musa
• Italian: muse (it) f
• Japanese: ミューズ (myūzu)
• Korean: 뮤즈 (myujeu)
• Latin: Mūsa f
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: Muse
• Macedonian: муза f (muza)
• Maori: manawakura
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: muse

• Occitan: musa (oc) f
• Polish: muza (pl) f
• Portuguese: musa (pt) f
• Romanian: muză (ro) f
• Russian: му́за (ru) f (múza)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: му́за f

  Roman: múza (sh) f

• Slovak: múza f
• Spanish: musa (es) f
• Swedish: musa (sv) c
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: му́за f (múza)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: awen f

Etymology 2

From Middle English musen, from Old French muser.

Verb

muse (third-person singular simple present muses, present participle musing, simple past and past participle mused)

1. (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ponder

2. (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:muse.
3. (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
   • c. 1726, James Thomson, Hymn:

     Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

4. (transitive) To wonder at.
   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; for what I will, I will, and there an end.

Related terms

• muser
• musing
• amuse

Translations

to become lost in thought

• Bulgarian: замислям се (zamisljam se)
• Czech: dumat (cs) impf, přemítat (cs) impf, hloubat impf, uvažovat (cs) impf
• Dutch: mijmeren (nl), nadenken (nl)
• Finnish: pohtia (fi), haikailla (fi), mietiskellä (fi), tuumia (fi)
• French: songer (fr)
• German: grübeln (de), nachsinnen (de), sinnieren (de)
• Indonesian: melamun (id), termenung (id)
• Italian: meditare (it)
• Japanese: 熟考する (jyukkōsuru), 瞑想する (meisōsuru)
• Maori: whakaaroaro
• Middle English: musen
• Polish: dumać (pl)
• Portuguese: divagar (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: meòraich
• Slovak: dumať impf, rozjímať impf
• Turkish: düşünceye dalmak (tr), derin derin düşünmek (tr), düşüncelere dalmak
• Ukrainian: задуматися (zadumatysja), замислитися (zamyslytysja)

to say with due consideration

• Czech: dumat (cs)
• Finnish: lausua (fi)
• German: sinnieren (de), nachdenklich sagen, nachsinnen (de)
• Polish: zastanawiać się (pl)
• Scottish Gaelic: meòraich
• Slovak: dumať impf, rozjímať impf
• Ukrainian: розмірко́вувати impf (rozmirkóvuvaty), роздумувати (rozdumuvaty)

to think on; to meditate on

• Bulgarian: размишлявам (bg) (razmišljavam)
• Czech: uvažovat (cs) impf, přemítat (cs) impf, hloubat impf
• Dutch: stilstaan bij
• German: nachsinnen (de), sinnieren (de)
• Maori: huritao, hurihuri, taute
• Middle English: musen
• Spanish: cavilar (es), meditar (es)
• Ukrainian: задуматися (zadumatysja), замислитися (zamyslytysja)

to wonder at

• Bulgarian: чудя се (čudja se)
• Middle English: musen
• Ukrainian: дивуватися (dyvuvatysja)

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     still he sate long time astonished / As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.

   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:

     And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for a long time sate^[sic] very sad and silent.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 416:

     He fell into a muse and pulled his upper lip.

Etymology 3

From French musse. See muset.

Noun

muse (plural muses)

1. A gap or hole in a hedge, fence, etc. through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.

   Find a hare without a muse. (old proverb)

Anagrams

• Semu, emus, umes

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /myz/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: musent, muses

Noun

muse f (plural muses)

1. artistic inspiration
2. muse (specific artistic subject)

Verb

muse

1. inflection of muser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “muse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• émus, meus, mues, seum

Italian

Noun

muse f

1. plural of musa

Anagrams

• sume

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

muse

1. Alternative form of mous

Etymology 2

Noun

muse

1. Alternative form of Muse

Etymology 3

Verb

muse

1. Alternative form of musen

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French musée, from Latin mūsēum, from Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse or museer, definite plural museene or musea)

1. Alternative form of musé

References

• “muse” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²mʉː.sə/

Noun

muse f (definite singular musa, indefinite plural muser, definite plural musene)

1. a muse

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²mʉː.sə/

Verb

muse (present tense musar, past tense musa, past participle musa, passive infinitive musast, present participle musande, imperative muse/mus)

1. to whisper

   Synonym: kviskre

Etymology 3

From French musée, from Latin mūsēum, from Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseîon).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʉ.seː/, [mʉʷ.ˈseː]

Noun

muse n (definite singular museet, indefinite plural muse, definite plural musea)

1. alternative spelling of musé

References

• “muse” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Verb

muse

1. only used in se muse, third-person singular present indicative of musirse
2. only used in te ... muse, syntactic variant of músete, second-person singular imperative of musirse