Did you know that muscle comes from mouse?

You didn’t read that wrong.

Apparently back in Ancient Greece, someone thought that bulging muscles (think biceps) resembled mice. So mys was the root for both words, and that just carried right up on through the millennia and into Latin, and from there to many other languages.

I don’t know about you, but I thought the shared letters and sounds were pure coincidence. Turns out, the Latin musculus means “little mouse.” That’s where our English word came from, way back in the 1300s.

Now you know.

Word Nerds Merch!