Mew - mews - Muse

The verb 'to muse', the noun 'a muse' and the noun '[a] Mews' form one of the sets of homophones listed by the then Poet Laureate Robert Bridges.
(For more, see Bridges homophones). AWE has a category listing our articles on each of these. To these may be added his separate set of homophones of the singular homograph mew; AWE also includes the pronunciation of Meaux. The pronunciation is as native English-speakers might expect from mews and muse.IPA: /ˈmjuz/.

• Three noun homographs, all it may be conjectured with an onomatopoeic origin, exist:
  • The most everyday mew (from a Common Germanic root) is the noise made by a cat. This has the related verb
    • 'to mew', "to utter a mew" (OED, 2020), 'produce the sound miaow'. (Both noun and verb mews, in this sense, can be replaced by miaow, waw or mewl, etc.)
  • Formerly (and still in Scotland) mew (also from a (different) Common Germanic root) was a common name for a [sea]gull "(later esp[ecially]) the common gull, Larus canus, or the herring gull, L. argentatus" (OED 2020). Seamew is still used occasionally to mean the common gull, Larus canus.
  • The third mew, archaically, meant, of a bird, 'to moult', 'periodically to shed feathers before regrowing them'. The origin is the Old French muer, with the same meaning. This difficult time for falconers led to construction of cages or other quarters for moulting hawks, which was extended, usually in the plural form Mews, to all buildings used to house hawks. The royal mews at Charing Cross in London were replaced by royal stables and coach-houses (now moved to Buckingham Palace), which were still called the royal mews. The word came to be applied to any accommodation for horses, carriages and associated workers and equipment. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the growth of London saw houses for the rich increasingly backing on to terraces of stables and coach houses on the ground floor, with servants' accommodation above. These were Mews; similar developments nowadays have kept the name, if not the horses; "Group of small terrace-houses, set close together in a court or cul-de-sac, not on a main street-frontage", (Curl, 2006).
• For the spelling muse see also Muse. Some notes are appended here.
  • The verb 'to muse' means 'to ponder', 'to reflect upon', 'to meditate over', 'to think about in an undisciplined way'. It appears to be of Common Romance origin, and may descend from a root connected with mus, 'face'.
    • 'To muse' gave rise to 'amuse', by a train of meanings which led through the obsolete 'muse' and 'cause to muse', through 'to attract the attention of' and 'to divert the attention of, to deceive or cheat' (OED 2020 observes "The usual sense in 17–18th c[enturies]"), with a military 'to divert the enemy from his purpose', 'to feint'; and then 'to distract the attention from serious business "by anything trifling, ludicrous, or entertaining" (OED), ending in "[t]o cause (time) to pass pleasantly, to entertain agreeably; to beguile, while away, enliven."
  • The noun 'a muse' derives from the Nine Muses of classical mythology (Greek μοῦσα, Latin musa), the tutelary goddesses of the arts. Since the Middle English period, any inspiration of a work of art can be called 'a muse', particularly a female lover.
  • Muse has also been used for 'a bagpipe' and 'a banana' - see Muse.

For an article on the East Yorkshire village of Meaux, locally pronounced as a homophone of muse, go to Meaux.