the.com/mouse
a five-inch acrobat that can squeeze through a hole the width of a pencil
means a small rodent with a pointed snout, rounded ears, and a long thin tail; also the hand-held device that moves a pointer across a computer screen.
from From Old English mūs, a word that has barely changed in thousands of years — it traces straight back to Proto-Indo-European *mūs, the same ancient root that gave Latin mus, Greek mŷs, and Sanskrit mūṣ. The computer sense is a modern joke: the first models, built in the 1960s, were small lumps trailing a wire-thin cord, and someone thought they looked like a mouse with a tail.
- collapsible skeleton
- squeezes through gaps smaller than a dime
- breeding speed
- one pair yields thousands in a year
- silent songs
- males serenade mates in ultrasonic pitches
- constant teeth
- incisors never stop growing, demanding endless gnawing
- heartbeat
- races up to 600 beats per minute
mickey mouse — disney character created in 1928, one of the most recognizable figures in entertainment
computer mouse — input device invented by douglas engelbart in 1964, standard pc accessory
house mouse — mus musculus species, most studied laboratory animal in genetics research
mouse lemur — smallest primate species found in madagascar, weighs less than 100 grams