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This is one of four related Middle Korean interrogatives all beginning with /mɨsɨ-/: 므스(musu), 므슥(musuk), 므슴(musum), and 므슷(musus). The precise etymological relationship between the four remains unclear.
When one considers this, what compassion could he have?
1481, “野老 / 야로”, in 分類杜工部詩諺解 / 분류두공부시언해, page 7:3:
므슴〮 ᄠᅳ〮드로〮 琴臺ᄅᆞᆯ〮 바랫〮ᄂᆞ니〮오
mùsúm ptút-ùlwó KUM.TOY-lól pàláysnòníwò
With what intention did it linger at the Zither Pavilion?
Usage notes
므스(musu) is used only for the semantically weak nouns 것(kes, “thing”) and 일(il, “work, event”).
므슴(musum) is used generally, but typically in rhetorical questions.
므슷(musus) is used primarily for 일(il, “event”) but is rarely attested elsewhere.
므슷 fails to survive into Early Modern Korean, while 므스 vanishes near the end of the eighteenth century. The default Early Modern interrogative determiner is 므슴, which loses its rhetorical sense and becomes a general interrogative determiner.
므슨 (meuseun), probably a hypercorrection of 므슴 motivated by the adnominal ending 은 (eun), is first attested in 1637 and becomes more widespread than 므슴 around 1850, producing Modern Standard Korean 무슨 (museun).