Universal #1182
Legacy number: 1182
| Number | 1178 |
| Original | The notion ‘muscle’ is expressed predominantly by using small mammals as structural templates. As in the case of English muscle (which is ultimately derived from Latin Musculus ‘little mouse’), terms for ‘mouse’ or ‘rat’ appear to provide the most common source for ‘muscle’ or ‘muscular part of the body’, where the latter may refer to such notions as ‘thigh’, ‘calf of a leg’, or ‘biceps’. Other animals such as lizards, rabbits, toads, or calves, are used less frequently that mice and rabbits. |
| Standardized | The notion ‘muscle’ is expressed predominantly by using small mammals as structural templates. As in the case of English muscle (which is ultimately derived from Latin Musculus ‘little mouse’), terms for ‘mouse’ or ‘rat’ appear to provide the most common source for ‘muscle’ or ‘muscular part of the body’, where the latter may refer to such notions as ‘thigh’, ‘calf of a leg’, or ‘biceps’. Other animals such as lizards, rabbits, toads, or calves, are used less frequently that mice and rabbits. |
| Keywords | body parts |
| Domain | lexicon |
| Type | target < source |
| Status | diachronic |
| Quality | statistical |
| Basis | 118 languages of worldwide distribution |
| Source | Brown & Witkowski 1981, Wilkins 1993, Wilkins 1996, reviewed in Heine 1997: 132 |
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