Word.ws English Dictionary

muscifuge

muscifuge noun: something which repels or kills flies, typically a plant; a fly repellent. Also spelled "muscafuge" (1844) by Henry Stephens, who claimed to have coined it.

Noun

muscifuge (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural, rare) Something which repels or kills flies, typically a plant; a fly repellent. Also spelled "muscafuge" (1844) by Henry Stephens, who claimed to have coined it.
    • Pharmacists who are plagued with flies in hot weather will be glad to learn that, according to the Moniteur des Produits Chimiques, the Ricinus sanguinis, a common ornamental foliage plant and own brother to the Ricinus communis, is an effectual muscifuge.1882, anonymous, The Pharmacist and Chemist, Volumes 15-16, C.E. Southard, page 228
    • A Muscifuge... the sweet odour emanated seems very offensive to the ordinary house fly.1897, anonymous author, The Dublin Journal of Medical Science, volume 103, Fannin & Company, page 186

Origin of muscifuge

From Latin musca (“fly”) + -fuge (“repellent”), compare medieval Latin muscifugium, a fly fan.

Questions about muscifuge

What does muscifuge mean?
Muscifuge means something which repels or kills flies, typically a plant; a fly repellent. Also spelled "muscafuge" (1844) by Henry Stephens, who claimed to have coined it.
What part of speech is muscifuge?
Muscifuge is a noun.

Words near muscifuge in the dictionary

  1. muscicole
  2. muscicolous
  3. muscid
  4. muscids
  5. musciform
  6. muscifuge
  7. muscimol
  8. muscimole
  9. muscine
  10. muscle
  11. muscle ass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: muscifuge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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