The verb μυκτηριζω (mukterizo) means to do the mucus-thing: to blow one's nose, whether for practical reasons or to show contempt by snorting (Galatians 6:7 only). It's a variant of the verb μυσσομαι (mussomai), also meaning to do the snot thing, which may or may not have reminded of μυστηριον (musterion), discovery, and μυς (mus), mouse, from the verb μυω (muo) and its future form μυσω (muso), to be hidden just below the surface, but this would depend mostly on the good humor of the beholder or the behearer.

In technical reality, our verb ultimately derives from the noun μυξα (muxa), mucus or snot, which in turn derives from the Proto-Indo-European root "mewk-", meaning slip or slime (hence, indeed, the Latin noun mucus and the ever useful noun muck). From the verb μυσσομαι (mussomai) comes the noun μυκτηρ (mukter), which literally referred to the nostril but which figuratively denoted sarcasm or a person engaged in such: a sneerer.

Whether by coincidence or not (here at Abarim Publications, we think not), the Hebrew verb מוך (muk) means to bring low in a socio-economic sense and the related verb מכך (makak) means to bring low or to humiliate (and see our article on the many Hebrew roots of Greek).

From our verb μυκτηριζω (mukterizo) derives:

The verb μυκαομαι (mukaomai) means to "muuu" (to low or bellow, what cows do). There is also a verb μηκαομαι (mekaomai), to "meh" (to bleat, what sheep do), and a verb μωκαομαι (mokaomai), to "moe" or "moa" (to do whatever camels do; this verb was also used to mean to mimic and hence ridicule). These words are obviously onomatopoeic, but still, our verb μυκαομαι (mukaomai) occurs only once in the New Testament, in Revelation 10:3, where John hears an angel cry out with a great voice like a lion bellowing.

In the Greek classics, our verb is associated mostly with oxen and calves, but on occasion a hero like Heracles bellows (in agony). Strikingly, in the Iliad, the gates of heaven bellow open (Il.5.749), as do the gates in the defensive wall of the attacking Achaeans when Hektor rams them with a boulder (Il.12.460), as does the divinely wrought shield of Achilles when it's hit by a spear (Il.20.260). Also rather strikingly, when Odysseus' crew slaughter the sacred cows of Helios, their carcasses keep lowing while being roasted on the spit (Od.12.395).