Origins of Common Words - Muscle

About the history, origins, and definitions of the common word muscle.

UNCOMMON STORIES BEHIND COMMON WORDS

Muscle - The Greeks, watching their athletes at the games, saw in the play of muscles in an arm a little mouse running up and down under the skin. The Romans inherited the concept, and our muscle goes back to the Latin musculum, a diminutive of mus, or "mouse." The same derivation is found in all Romance and Teutonic languages.