mouse
pronunciation
How to pronounce mouse in British English:
UK [maʊs]
How to pronounce mouse in American English:
US [maʊs]
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- Noun:
- any of numerous small rodents typically resembling diminutive rats having pointed snouts and small ears on elongated bodies with slender usually hairless tails
- a hand-operated electronic device that controls the coordinates of a cursor on your computer screen as you move it around on a pad; on the bottom of the mouse is a ball that rolls on the surface of the pad
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- Verb:
- to go stealthily or furtively
- manipulate the mouse of a computer
Word Origin
- mouse
- mouse: [OE] Mouse is an ancient word, with relatives today in all the Germanic and Slavic languages. Its Indo-European ancestor was *mūs-, which produced Greek mūs, Latin mūs (something of a dead end: the modern Romance languages have abandoned it), Sanskrit mūs (source, via a very circuitous route, of English musk), and prehistoric Germanic *mūs-.This has evolved into German maus, Dutch muis, Swedish and Danish mus, and English mouse. And the Slavic branch of the ‘mouse’-family includes Russian mysh’, Polish mysz, and Serbo- Croat mish. English relatives of mouse include muscle and mussel (ultimately the same word) and marmot [17], which goes back to a Vulgar Latin accusative form *mūrem montis ‘mouse of the mountain’.=> marmot, muscle, musk, mussel
- mouse (n.)
- Old English mus "small rodent," also "muscle of the arm," from Proto-Germanic *mus (cognates: Old Norse, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Danish, Swedish mus, Dutch muis, German Maus "mouse"), from PIE *mus- (cognates: Sanskrit mus "mouse, rat," Old Persian mush "mouse," Old Church Slavonic mysu, Latin mus, Lithuanian muse "mouse," Greek mys "mouse, muscle"). Plural form mice (Old English mys) shows effects of i-mutation. Contrasted with man (n.) from 1620s. Meaning "black eye" (or other discolored lump) is from 1842. Computer sense is from 1965, though applied to other things resembling a mouse in shape since 1750, mainly nautical. Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus [Horace]
- mouse (v.)
- "to hunt mice," mid-13c., from mouse (n.). Related: Moused; mousing.
Example
- 1. It 's a cat and mouse game .
- 2. " Disney started as a black and white cartoon about this little mouse , " vesterbacka told bloomberg . "
- 3. It created a mouse , but that mouse simply opened the gates .
- 4. The mighty mouse was yet another example of that .
- 5. It is a mouse in that logo ?