mușca

Where it comes from

Unknown. Starting from the dialectal variant form mucica, possibly from a Vulgar Latin root *muticāre, from Latin mutīre, a parallel formation of mussāre "to murmur" (compare Spanish amusgar, from *mussicāre). It may have referred to the growl of an animal before biting. Another etymology may be *muccicāre, from mucculare, from muccus, or from a crossing of muccus with morsicāre (compare Sicilian muzzicari, Neapolitan and Tarantino muzzecà, muzzecare, also Romanian murseca). Compare Aromanian mushcu, mãshcu.