musca

See also: MUSCA, Musca, muscã, muscă, and mușca

English

Noun

musca (plural muscae)

Short for musca volitans.

Latin

musca (a fly)

Etymology

From a Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mu-, *mew-.

See also Sanskrit मशक (maśáka), Old Church Slavonic моуха (muxa), and the Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa, “a fly”) of which μυΐσκη (muḯskē) may be a diminutive form. Confer the German Mücke (“midge”) and English midge, midget.

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmus.ka/, [ˈmʊs̠kä]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmus.ka/, [ˈmuskä]

Noun

musca f (genitive muscae); first declension

a fly (insect)
Puer, abige muscas.
Repel those flies, boy.
(transferred meaning) an inquisitive or prying person

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	musca	muscae
Genitive	muscae	muscārum
Dative	muscae	muscīs
Accusative	muscam	muscās
Ablative	muscā	muscīs
Vocative	musca	muscae

Derived terms

muscārium
muscārius

Descendants

Aromanian: muscã
Asturian: mosca
Catalan: mosca
Dalmatian: muasca
Franco-Provençal: mouche
Old French: mousche
- Middle French: mousche
  - French: mouche
    - → English: mouche
    - → Portuguese: muche
    - → Swedish: musch
    - → Turkish: muş
Friulian: moscje
Galician: mosca
Italian: mosca
Norman: moûque
Occitan: mosca
Portuguese: mosca
Romanian: muscă
Romansch: mustga
Sardinian: musca
Sicilian: musca
Old Spanish: mosca
- Ladino: moshka (Latin spelling), מושקה‎ (Hebrew spelling)
- Spanish: mosca
Venetian: mósca
Walloon: moxhe
⇒ Vulgar Latin: musciō
- Catalan: moixó
- Aragonese: muxón
- Old French: muissun
  - Picard: mouchon
  - Walloon: moxhon
- → Old Dutch: musca
  - Middle Dutch: mussche
    - Dutch: mus
    - Afrikaans: mus
    - → West Frisian: mosk
- → Luxembourgish: Mësch

References

“musca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“musca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
musca in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
musca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
musca in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
“musca”, in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

Middle English

Noun

musca

Alternative form of muske

Romanian

Noun

musca f

definite nominative/accusative singular of muscă

Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin musca. Compare Italian mosca.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈmus.ka/
Hyphenation: mù‧sca

Noun

musca f (plural muschi)

fly (insect)

References

Traina, Antonino (1868), “musca”, in Nuovo vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano [New Sicilian-Italian vocabulary] (in Italian), Liber Liber, published 2020, pages 2619–2620