Myalgia

The story of the word

μῦς meant mouse and muscle both, from the way a flexed biceps slides under the skin like something moving beneath a sheet. Latin translated the image rather than the word and got musculus, little mouse, which is what English uses. So muscle and myalgia are the same joke told twice, once in each language. ἄλγος supplies the pain in neuralgia and, negated, in analgesic.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English

First recorded

19th century