Mosesn.

Etymology: < classical Latin Mōsēs, Mōȳsēs < Hellenistic Greek Μωσῆς, Μωυσῆς (1st cent. b.c.) < biblical Hebrew Mōšeh the name of the Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and passed on to them the Ten Commandments, and to whom the authorship of the Pentateuch was traditionally ascribed.The further etymology of Hebrew Mōšeh is uncertain. It perhaps represents a Hebrew assimilation of the Egyptian name Mose or of Egyptian ms child, (one) born, which reflects Moses' adoption by the Pharaoh's daughter (Exodus 2:5–10). Alternatively, Mōšeh may be taken to represent the present active participle of Hebrew māšāh to draw (out of the water) which relates to Moses' having been taken from the waterside; this is the traditional explanation and the one given by the writer of Exodus (Exodus 2:10). The name is attested in English contexts from the Old English period in the forms Moyses (accusative Moysen , Moyses ), Moises , Moses , and in the Middle English period also in the forms Moysen , Moseyes . The form Moises persists into the 17th cent. alongside the modern form Moses . Sense 1b arises from the depiction of Moses with horns frequent in Western art from the 11th cent. onwards (a very early instance being in British Library MS Cotton Claudius B. IV), arising from mistranslation of Exodus 34:29 in the Vulgate ‘ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Domini’ (where cornutus has the post-classical Latin sense ‘flashing with rays of light, haloed’, rather than the classical Latin sense ‘horned’). Compare Middle French, French †parent de Moyse (late 16th cent.), French †moïse (mid 18th cent.); also:1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Moyse, Holie Moyses; whose ordinarie counterfeit hauing on either side of the head an eminence, or luster arising somewhat in the forme of a horne, hath imbouldened a prophane Author to stile Cuckolds, Parents de Moyse.