mösse

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See also: mosse and Mosse

Central Franconian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle High German muozen, from Old High German muozan, from Proto-West Germanic *mōtan. 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 notI may not.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

  1. (Ripuarian, auxiliary) 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.

Descendants

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  • Hunsrik: misse
  • Luxembourgish: mussen