musth

• must

Persian مست (mast, “drunk, inebriated”).

• IPA^(key): /mʌst/, /mʌsθ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

musth (countable and uncountable, plural musths)

1. A time during which male elephants exhibit increased levels of sexual activity and aggressiveness and often secrete leaking temporin from the sides of their heads.
   • 2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa:

     At MalaMala we are charged by a bull elephant. The late sun reflecting on the moisture at his temporal gland shows he is in musth, and mad with lust, and we have inadvertently separated him from the breeding cows of his desire.

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) An elephant in this sexual and aggressive state.

• musthy

• Muths, Thums, shtum