An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Maus

by Friedrich Kluge

Maus (1.), ‘mouse,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German mûs, feminine; compare Dutch muis, Anglo-Saxon mûs, feminine, English mouse, Old Icelandic mús (Gothic *mûs), feminine, ‘mouse.’ In the consonantal form of the stem, mûs-, it is the common Teutonic as well as the common Aryan term for ‘mouse.’ The name occurs in almost all the Aryan languages, a proof that the Aryans in their primitive Asiatic home were already acquainted with the tiny animal, chiefly through its thefts, mûs- being derived from an Old Aryan root, mū̆s, ‘to steal,’ which exists in the Franconian chrêomosido, ‘plundering dead bodies,’ of the Lex Salica, and signifying ‘thief’ (it is possible, however, that the mū̆s, ‘to steal,’ is deduced from mûs, ‘mouse’). Compare Sanscrit mûš, ‘mouse,’ with the root muš, mušây, ‘to take away, rob’; also Greek μῦς, Old Slovenian myšĭ, feminine. Compare further the following word.

Maus (2.), properly ‘muscles on the arm and foot,’ now especially ‘ball of the thumb,’ from Middle High German mûs, feminine, ‘muscles especially of the upper part of the arm’; Old High German mûs, Anglo-Saxon mûs, Dutch muis, have the same sense; properly identical with Maus (1). In other cases too names of animals are applied to parts of the body. Compare Greek μῦς, ‘muscle,’ μυών, ‘cluster of muscles,’ Latin mus-culus, ‘muscle,’ literally ‘little mouse,’ Old Slovenian myšĭca, ‘arm,’ Sanscrit muš-ka, ‘testicle, pudenda muliebria,’ literally ‘little mouse.’