the.com/must
The one verb with zero wiggle room and no patience for your excuses.
means An auxiliary verb expressing necessity, obligation, or near-certain inference — what has to be, what is required, or what almost surely is the case.
from From Old English 'moste,' the past tense of 'motan' (to be able to, to be allowed to), which over time hardened from 'may' into 'must.' It's a cousin of German 'müssen.' Oddly, the word began life talking about permission and possibility, then drifted into pure obligation — the freedom of 'may' curdling into the compulsion of 'must.' (The 'must' meaning new wine, and the 'must' of mustiness, are entirely separate words.)
- wine term
- Must is freshly crushed grape juice with skins and seeds
- no past tense
- It cannot be conjugated backwards, unlike most verbs
- latin root
- From mustum, meaning young, fresh, unfermented wine
- smell sense
- Mustiness shares no etymology with the verb at all
- modal force
- English's strongest obligation word, stronger than should