Learn English – Do the verb “muse” and the noun “Muse” have a common etymology

etymology

I was wondering about that: the New Oxford American Dictionary says to muse comes from the French muser, which comes from the Latin musum. The Muse comes form the Latin musa, which comes from the Greek mousa. Those sound close, but my Latin is too weak (and my Greek inexistent) to tell if they were related back in the antique days.

Best Answer

Etymonline says this about that:

muse "to be absorbed in thought," mid-14c., from O.Fr. muser (12c.) "to ponder, loiter, waste time," lit. "to stand with one's nose in the air" (or, possibly, "to sniff about" like a dog who has lost the scent), from muse "muzzle," from Gallo-Romance *musa "snout," of unknown origin. Probably influenced in sense by muse (n.). Related: Mused; musing.

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