musa

From Latin mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).

musa f (plural muses)

1. muse (source of inspiration)

• muséu
• música

Borrowed from Latin mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈmu.zə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈmu.za]

musa f (plural muses)

1. muse (source of inspiration)

• museu
• música

• “musa”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

musa

1. inflection of musar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

musa

1. (anatomy) breast

• IPA^(key): /ˈmusa/
• Rhymes: -usa
• Hyphenation: mu‧sa

musa (accusative singular musan, plural musaj, accusative plural musajn)

1. murine

• ronĝula (“rodential”)

• muso (“mouse”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈmusɑ/, [ˈmus̠ɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -usɑ
• Syllabification^(key): mu‧sa
• Hyphenation^(key): mu‧sa

Clipping of musiikki (“music”) +‎ -sa.

musa (informal)

1. music

   Synonyms: see musiikki

• “musa”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 18 September 2023

Perhaps from Swedish mos (“mash”) in the sense of "gravel", originally to mean "(state of being) broken". The sense "stone, rock" is found both in dialects and Helsinki slang.

musa

1. (colloquial, idiomatic) (state of being) broken

   Alternative forms: mosa, mäsä, musu

   Synonyms: see rikki

   olla musana ― to be broken

2. (dialectal or dated Helsinki slang) rock, stone

   Alternative form: mosa

   Synonyms: see kivi

3. (dialectal) bump

   Alternative form: mosa

   Synonyms: see möykky

• musari (“rock, stone”, Helsinki slang)

• Forsberg, Ulla-Maija (2021) Stadin slangin etymologinen sanakirja [Etymological Dictionary of Helsinki Slang]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online version; note: also includes other etymological sources; this source is labeled "SSES 2021"), Helsinki: Gaudeamus, →ISBN
• “musa”, in Suomen murteiden sanakirja [Dictionary of Finnish Dialects]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, incomplete, continuously updated), Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten keskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2022, →ISSN.

• Samu, masu, suma, usma

• IPA^(key): /my.za/
• Homophones: musas, musât

musa

1. third-person singular past historic of muser

• muas, SAMU

From Latin mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmusa/ [ˈmu.s̺ɐ]
• Rhymes: -usa
• Hyphenation: mu‧sa

musa f (plural musas)

1. muse (source of inspiration)

• museo
• música

• “musa”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

• IPA^(key): /ˈmu.za/
• Rhymes: -uza
• Hyphenation: mù‧sa

From Latin mūsa/Mūsa, from Ancient Greek μοῦσα (moûsa)/Μοῦσα (Moûsa).

musa f (plural muse)

1. (Greek mythology, usually capitalized) Muse
   • 1472, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno [The Divine Comedy: Hell], 12th edition (paperback), Le Monnier, published 1994, Canto II, page 21, lines 7–9:

     O muse, o alto ingegno, or m'aiutate; ¶ o mente che scrivesti ciò ch'io vidi, ¶ qui si parrà la tua nobilitate. […]

     O Muses, O high genius, now assist me! ¶ O memory, that didst write down what I saw, ¶ here thy nobility shall be manifest!

   • 1581, Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata [Jerusalem Delivered]‎^[4], Erasmo Viotti, Canto I, page 2:

     O Muſa, tu, che di caduchi allori ¶ non circondi la fronte in Elicona ¶ ma sù nel cielo infra beati chori ¶ hai di ſtelle immortali aurea corona […]

     O Muse, you who don't encircle your head with caducous laurel in Helicon, but instead, among blessed choirs up in the sky, have a golden crown of immortal stars […]

   • 1822, Ippolito Pindemonte, transl., Odissea [Odyssey]‎^[5], translation of Ὀδύσσεια (Odýsseia) by Homer, Book I, page 1:

     Musa, quell’uom di moltiforme ingegno ¶ dimmi, che molto errò, poich’ebbe a terra ¶ gittate d’Iliòn le sacre torri; […]

     O Muse, tell me about that man of multiform ingenuity, that much wandered after bringing down the sacred towers of Troy […]

2. (figurative)
   1. poetic inspiration
   2. (by extension) poetry
   3. poet

From Late Latin musa, from Arabic مَوْزَة (mawza).

musa f (plural muse)

1. the Musa taxonomic genus

• suma

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmuː.sa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmuː.s̬a]

From Ancient Greek μοῦσα (moûsa). Akin to mēns (“mind, reason”).

mūsa f (genitive mūsae); first declension

1. song, poem
2. (in the plural) studies, sciences

First-declension noun.

• Mūsa

• "musa", 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)
• “musa”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “musa”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

From Arabic مَوْزَة (mawza), singulative of مَوْز (mawz). Attested in Latin since the 14th century.

mūsa f (genitive mūsae); first declension

1. (Medieval Latin) banana
   • 14th century, Symon Semeonis, Itinerarium Symonis Semeonis ab Hybernia ad Terram Sanctam 40:

     Non enim sunt arboris poma, sed cujusdam herbe in altum crescentis ad modum arboris, que musa appellatur; cujus folia in figura et colore foliis cujusdam herbe, que anglice dicitur radigche, multumque assimilantur, quamvis in longitudine et latitudine illa multum excedant.

     They're not fruit from a tree, but from a plant that grows up in the manner of the trees, called the musa. In terms of shape and colour, its leaves resemble very much those of a plant that the English call radigche [radish], although they exceed these a lot in both length and width.

First-declension noun.

• ariēna (classical)
• banana (New Latin)

• Translingual: Musa
• Sicilian: musa
• → English: Musa

• "musa". Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources.

• musen m sg

musa f sg

1. definite feminine singular of mus

musa f sg

1. definite feminine singular of mus

From Latin mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).

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musa f (plural musas)

1. muse (source of inspiration)

mūsa

1. genitive plural of mūs

From Proto-Nguni *úmusá.

musa^? class 3

1. kindness

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Learned borrowing from Latin mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).

• Rhymes: -uzɐ
• Hyphenation: mu‧sa

musa f (plural musas)

1. Muse
2. muse (a source of inspiration)

   Synonym: inspiração

3. a poet's creative and poetic genius

• “musa”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “musa”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025

• IPA^(key): /ˈmusa/ [ˈmu.sa]
• Rhymes: -usa
• Syllabification: mu‧sa

From Latin mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa).

musa f (plural musas)

1. Muse
2. muse (a source of inspiration)

   Synonyms: inspiración, numen

3. a poet's creative and poetic genius
4. (literary) poetry

   Synonym: poesía

musa

1. only used in me musa, first-person singular present subjunctive of musirse
2. only used in se musa, third-person singular present subjunctive of musirse
3. only used in se ... musa, syntactic variant of músase, third-person singular imperative of musirse

• “musa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

musa (to one person, to multiple people musani)

1. (with infinitive) don't

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /mʱúːsa/

musa (to one person, to multiple people musani)

1. (with infinitive) don't

   Synonym: kahle

• C. M. Doke, B. W. Vilakazi (1972) “musa”, in Zulu-English Dictionary, →ISBN: “musa (6-3.9)”