Meaning: After death. Context examples: these piano pieces were published posthumously / he was honored posthumously. Pertainym: posthumous (occurring or coming into existence after a person's death)
Word Origin and History for muscle Expand. n. late 14c., from Middle French muscle muscle, sinew (14c.) and directly from Latin musculus a muscle, literally little mouse, diminutive of mus mouse (see mouse (n.)). So called because the shape and movement of some muscles (notably biceps) were thought to resemble mice. The analogy was made in Greek, too, where mys is both mouse and muscle, and its comb. form gives the medical prefix myo-. In Middle English, lacerte, from the Latin word for lizard, also was used as a word for a muscle. Musclez & lacertez bene one selfe Ã¾ing, Bot Ã¾e muscle is said to Ã¾e fourme of mouse & lacert to Ã¾e fourme of a lizard.
The biceps brachii muscle is the one that gave all muscles their name: it comes from the Latin musculus, little mouse, because the appearance of the flexed biceps resembles the back of a mouse. The same phenomenon occurred in Greek, in which Î¼á¿¦Ï, mÈ³s, means both mouse and muscle.