muleとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音, General American) IPA^(key): /mjuːl/
• 韻: -uːl
• Homophone: mewl

語源 1

From Middle English mule, from Anglo-Norman mule and 古期英語 mūl, both from Latin mūlus, from Proto-Indo-European *mukslós. Compare Late Latin muscellus (“young he-mule”), Old East Slavic мъшкъ (mŭškŭ, “mule”), Ancient Greek (Phocian) μυχλός (mukhlós, “he-ass”), and German Maul Maultier, Maulesel (through Latin).

名詞

mule (複数形 mules)

1. The generally sterile male or female hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.
   • 2017, Robert S. McPherson, Cowboying In Canyon Country, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 200:

     One day he ran into a herd of a half dozen elk, so he rode his mule down the canyon three or four miles, leaving the sheep alone.

2. The generally sterile hybrid offspring of any two species of animals.
   • 1922, Onnie Warren Smith, The Book of the Pike, page 187:

     It would be exceedingly interesting to know if the hybrid would reproduce, a matter I deem exceedingly doubtful, for the chances are it would prove a "mule" (infertile).

3. (now rare) A hybrid plant. [from 18th c.]
   • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, p. 149:

     Vegetable mules supply an irrefragable argument in favour of the sexual system of botany.

   • 1837, William Herbert, Amaryllidaceæ: Preceded by an Attempt to Arrange the Monocotyledonous Orders, and Followed by a Treatise on Cross-bred Vegetables, and Supplement, page 353:

     The most extraordinary mule, however, that is asserted to have been produced on the Continent, is a cross between the cabbage and horse-radish, which Monsieur Sageret reports that he has obtained […]

4. (informal) A stubborn person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stubborn person

   • 2005, Dorothea Benton Frank, Isle of Palms, Penguin, →ISBN:

     "Where in the hell do you think I learned to be such a mule?”

5. (slang) A person paid to smuggle drugs.
   • 2007, Thomas G. Blacklock, Safe Zone: A Novel Approach to the Drug War, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 44:

     “Yeah, in Denver, we know about Uriarte's involvement in meth. Our Las Cruces office seized over six hundred pounds of methamphetamine from two of his mules last year.”

6. (numismatics) A coin or medal minted with obverse and reverse designs not normally seen on the same piece, either intentionally or in error.
   • 1988, Andrew Burnett, The Normanby hoard and other Roman coin hoards, British Museum Publications:

     What is less clear, however, is why mint workers should have chosen to produce mules, if they were making forgeries […]

7. (role-playing games) A MMORPG character, or NPC companion in a tabletop RPG, used mainly to store extra inventory for the owner's primary character.
   • 2007, David L. McClard, Verotopia Online: The MMORPG of the Century‎^[1], Xlibris, →ISBN, page 89:

     He was in the middle of organizing his massive stash of rare and exquisite bounty, all kept safely in the inventory cache of a mule, an entirely separate character which he paid a monthly fee to maintain exclusively for that purpose.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mule.
8. Any of a group of cocktails involving ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and various liquors.
9. (sailing) A kind of triangular sail for a yacht.
   • 1974, Yachting, volume 135, page 60:

     In heavier seas where a boat must sail a course dictated by waves, or where wave action makes power more important than pointing, the mule will prove the faster sail.

10. A kind of cotton-spinning machine.

同意語

• (sterile hybrid of donkey かつ horse): Missouri canary

派生語

派生した語

• → Irish: miúil

参考

• ass
• donkey
• hinny (male horse X female donkey)
• horse

動詞

mule (三人称単数 現在形 mules, 現在分詞 muling, 過去形および過去分詞形 muled)

1. (transitive, slang) To smuggle (illegal drugs).
   • 2000, Arturo Longoria, Keepers of the Wilderness:

     There are many drug lords, each with his own corridor (think of it as a franchise of sorts) funneling narcotics into Texas. There are multifold methods of transport. The old, and still viable, way is to "mule" it across the Rio Grande in a small boat.

   • 2004, William Glenn, The Sailor's Death:

     Thornton was supposed to mule it back to the States from one of the ports he stopped in, give it to Maxwell and Ames, and get the second half of a quarter-million.

語源 2

From Middle French mule (“slipper”), from Latin mulleus calceus (“red shoe”), from mullus (“red”).

名詞

mule (複数形 mules)

2. A shoe that has no fitting or strap around the heel, but which covers the foot.
   • 1944, Emily Carr, “First Tenant”, in The House of All Sorts‎^[2]:

     The bride was a shocking housekeeper and dragged round all day in boudoir cap, frowsy negligee and mules—slip, slop, slip, slop.

   • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 29:

     Routine dress for Tuesday will be bra and panties with high-heel satin mules.

Latin

名詞

mūle

1. vocative singular of mūlus

参照

• mule in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius かつ others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)