mousse

Etymology

French mousse (“foam, froth”), from Old French mosse (“moss”), from Frankish or Old Dutch mosa (“moss”), from Proto-Germanic *musą (“moss, bog, marsh”). More at moss.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muːs/
• Rhymes: -uːs

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: moose

Noun

mousse (countable and uncountable, plural mousses)

1. An airy pudding served chilled, particularly chocolate mousse.
2. A savory dish, of meat or seafood, containing gelatin.
3. A styling cream used for hair.

   He slicked his hair back with mousse, but the cowlick still stuck up.

4. A stable emulsion of water and oil that is created by wave action churning the water where an oil spill occurs.
   • 1987, D.F. Boesch & ‎N.N. Rabalais, Long-term Environmental Effects of Offshore Oil and Gas Development, →ISBN:

     Pretreatment of oil or sea water with dispersants or demulsifiers generally inhibits laboratory mousse formation with most of the oils and petroleum products tested (Berridge et al. , 1968b; Bridie et al. , 1980a,b).

   • 1993, John R. Clayton, James R. Payne, & John S. Farlow, Oil Spill Dispersants: Mechanisms of Action and Laboratory Tests, →ISBN, page 21:

     A number of investigators have shown that the starting composition of a parent oil can have a major influence on its predisposittion to form stable water-in-oil emulsions (mousse). For example, the presence of natural surfactants in the wax, resin, and asphaltene fractions of oils has been positively correlated with the tendency to form mousse.

   • 1994, Dana Stabenow, A Cold-Blooded Business, →ISBN, page 50:

     When it washed ashore in Prince William Sound, the crude came in sticky gobs, in tar balls, in what they called mousse, crude whipped to a froth in the action of the sea.

   • 2009, Elspeth Leacock, The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, →ISBN, page 37:

     However, the sticky mousse clogged all of the skimmers, even the Vaydaghubsky. If all these skimmers had been on-site during the first three days of calm weather, before the oil was churned into mousse, they could have made a real difference

Verb

mousse (third-person singular simple present mousses, present participle moussing, simple past and past participle moussed)

1. To apply mousse (styling cream).

   He moussed his hair in the morning and then washed it out at night.

Anagrams

• Smouse, mouses

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mus/

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

Originally from a dialect south of the Loire, from Vulgar Latin *muttius, of Gaulish origin.

Etymology 2

From Old French mosse (“moss”), from Frankish *mosa (“moss”), from Proto-Germanic *musą (“moss”).

For the culinary sense one might suspect influence by Dutch moes, German Mus (both “mush, purée”). However, the metaphorical use of mousse for “foam” is older and the culinary sense can thence be derived without difficulty.

mousse

Etymology 3

From Spanish mozo.

Etymology 4

Further reading

• “mousse” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmusː]
• Hyphenation: mousse

Noun

mousse (plural mousse-ok)

1. mousse (dessert)

Etymology

Borrowed from French mousse, from Spanish mozo.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

mousse m (plural mousses)

1. (Jersey, nautical) cabin boy

Noun

mousse m, f (plural mousses)

1. (Jersey) child

Noun

mousse f or m (nonstandard) (plural mousses)

1. Alternative spelling of musse

Noun

mousse f (plural mousses)

1. mousse