Musky means having a heavy warm animal scent. A musky perfume, musky and sweet, a musky smell.
Musk was originally taken from a gland of the musk deer, and it is now made synthetically — which is just as well, since the animal was hunted for it. Musk molecules are heavy and evaporate slowly, which is why they are used as base notes and why a musky scent lasts on skin.
1adjectivemuskyHaving a heavy warm animal scent.
“The room smelled of his musky aftershave long after he had gone.”
musky is a quality of smell.
Proto-Indo-European
*muh₂s — mouse
Sanskrit
मुष्क — testicle
Ancient Greek
μόσχος
Latin
muscus
Old French
musc
Middle English
muske
English
musk
English, today
musky
Built from
From musk + -y. musk comes from Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος, from pal whence Persian مشک. Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (“testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (“mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA