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Definition 2024

mösse

mösse

See also: mosse

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

  • mosse, moße (Ripuarian; older forms)
  • misse, mieße, muße, moße (Moselle Franconian)

Verb

mösse ‎(third-person singular present moss, past tense mot, past participle jemot or jemoss)

  1. (Ripuarian) must; to have to; should
    Du moss dich ens wäsche, du rüchs e bessje.
    You should wash yourself, you have a bit of a smell.

Etymology

From Old High German muozan. The now predominant Ripuarian form with -ö- is influenced by German müssen.

The past tense mot- is peculiar. It has replaced the expected forms, which in the singular would have become homophonous with the respective present forms (*moss, *moß). Original -st- seems to have been irregularly reduced to -t-. However, the pronunciation /mɔːt/ alongside /moːt/ hints at an influence by (regularly explainable) past tense forms of mugge, müjje ‎(“may; to like”). The two verbs can be semantically close in negation; compare English I must not ≈ I may not.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmøsə/

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