When I was a kid, dad used to entertain me by moving his biceps. He would point to a bicep and say “这是老鼠 (this is a mouse)”.

What he probably didn’t know is that “muscle” comes from Latin “musculus“, which is the dimunitive form of the word that means “mouse”.

Coincidence?

It turns out that around 20% of the world’s languages have words for muscles coming from words for little animals. “Calf” is another example of this in English.

And in one third of all languages, the word for the “pupil” of the eye is closely related to “little person” in meaning. Again, English is no exception here.