musk

See also: Musk and MuSK

English edit

English Wikipedia has an article on:

musk

Etymology edit

From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian [script needed] (mwšk' /⁠mušk⁠/) whence Persian (mošk). Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ, “mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.

Pronunciation edit

(UK) IPA^(key): /mʌsk/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -ʌsk
Homophone: MuSK

Noun edit

musk (countable and uncountable, plural musks)

A greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
- 1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii:
  Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into what form you pleaſe; this, if your breath bee not to valiant, will make you ſmell as ſweete as my Ladies dogge.
A similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.
The odour of musk.
A musk deer (genus Moschus).
A muskflower (Erythranthe moschata).
A plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.
A plant of the genus Muscari; grape hyacinth.
(slang, colloquial, vulgar) The scent of human genitalia when aroused or unwashed.
I was so excited I could smell my own musk.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Descendants edit

→ Irish: musc
→ Welsh: mwsg

Translations edit

greasy secretion with powerful odour

Arabic: مِسْك m (misk)
Armenian: մուշկ (hy) (mušk)
Bengali: কস্তুরী (bn) (kosturi)
Bulgarian: мускус m (muskus)
Catalan: almesc (ca) m
Chinese:
Cantonese: 麝香 (se⁶ hoeng¹)

Hokkien: 麝香 (siā-hiuⁿ)

Mandarin: 麝香 (zh) (shèxiāng)
Czech: pižmo (cs) n
Danish: musk, moskus
Dutch: muskus (nl) f
Esperanto: mosko
Estonian: muskus
Finnish: myski (fi)
French: musc (fr) m
German: Moschus (de) m, Bisam m
Hebrew: מושק (he) m (mushk)
Hindi: कस्तूरी (hi) f (kastūrī), मुश्क (hi) m (muśk)
Hungarian: pézsma (hu)
Ido: mosko (io)
Indonesian: kesturi (id)
Irish: musc m
Italian: muschio (it) m
Japanese: 麝香 (ja) (じゃこう, jakō)
Javanese: dhèdhès (jv), kasturi (jv)
Korean: 사향(麝香) (sahyang)
Latin: muscus m
Macedonian: мошус (mošus), миск m (misk)
Malay: kasturi
Malayalam: കസ്തൂരി (ml) (kastūri)
Mon:ဂဒဵု (mnw)
Mongolian: заарь (mn) (zaarʹ)
Pali: katthūrikā f
Persian: مشک (fa) (mošk)
Polish: piżmo (pl) n
Portuguese: almíscar (pt) m
Prakrit: 𑀓𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀽𑀭𑀺𑀬𑀸 f (katthūriyā), 𑀓𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀽𑀭𑀻 (katthūrī)
Punjabi: ਕਸਤੂਰੀ f (kastūrī)
Romanian: mosc (ro) n
Russian: му́скус (ru) (múskus)
Sanskrit: कस्तूरी (sa) f (kastūrī), कस्तूरिका (sa) f (kastūrikā), see also Thesaurus:कस्तूरी
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: мо̀шус (sh) m

Roman: mošus (sh) m
Spanish: almizcle (es)
Swahili: zabadi (sw)
Swedish: mysk (sv) c
Tagalog: almiskle
Telugu: కస్తూరి (te) (kastūri)
Tibetan: གླ་རྩི་ (gla rtsi)
Turkish: misk (tr)
Ukrainian: му́скус m (múskus)
Urdu: مشک m (muśk)
Vietnamese: xạ hương (vi) (麝香)
Welsh: mwsg m

Verb edit

musk (third-person singular simple present musks, present participle musking, simple past and past participle musked)

(transitive) To perfume with musk.

Anagrams edit

skum

Middle English edit

Noun edit

musk

Alternative form of muske