Word Confusion: Moose versus Mousse

Posted September 17, 2013 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
8 July 2023

Well this one just cracked me up! I couldn’t believe anyone could confuse chocolate with fur! A mousse takes very little effort to eat, while the other . . . Well, there’s a lot more involved before you can eat a moose.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Moose	Mousse
Bull Moose At Gros Ventre by Mike Goad is in the public domain, via Pixabay.	Chocolate Coffee Mousse by Lu is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of Grammar:
Noun Plural: moose, mooses, or meese	Noun; Verb, transitive Plural for the noun: mousses Third person present verb: mousses Past tense or past participle: moussed Present participle: moussing
Large deer with palmate antlers, a sloping back, and a growth of skin hanging from the neck. It is native to northern Eurasia and northern North America. [British] Elk	Noun: Sweet or savory dish made as a smooth light mass with whipped cream and beaten egg white, flavored with chocolate, fish, etc., and typically served chilled Soft, light, or aerated gel such as a soap preparation Frothy preparation that is applied to the hair, enabling it to be styled more easily Brown frothy emulsion of oil and seawater formed by weathering of an oil slick Verb, transitive: Style hair using mousse
Examples:
Moose were frequently seen in the television series Northern Exposure. Part of the deer family, Alces alces is the biggest extant species. Somehow, saying a herd of meeses went through here, makes me laugh. Bull moose are a lot like human men, they prefer to roam in all-male herds and fight for their one-night stands.	Noun: Tonight we are offering a roulade of sole with a lobster mousse. Oh yeah, gimme some dark chocolate mousse. Helen loves her fragrant shower mousse. Verb, transitive: She mousses her hair. He was such a metrosexual. Can you imagine how much time he spends moussing his hair? I only mousse my hair after a shower.
Derivatives:
Noun: mooseburger	Noun: mousseline
History of the Word:
Early 17th century from an Eastern Algonquian language Compare with the Narragansett moòs	Mid-19th century, from the French for moss or froth

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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