Plural of fieldmouse; small rodents that live in open fields and grasslands rather than in buildings or forests.
Compound of 'field' and 'mice' (Old English 'mūs,' small rodent). The plural 'fieldmice' is an archaic or dialectal formation; modern usage typically prefers 'fieldmice' or 'field mice,' showing how English plurals have evolved over time.
Fieldmice were so common and destructive to grain crops that they appear throughout medieval literature and folktales as symbols of agricultural loss—one mouse seems harmless, but thousands could devastate an entire harvest.
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