muster [LME] The word muster has a military swagger to it, conjuring up a picture of troops gathering for inspection or in preparation for battle. In Australia and New Zealand, though, the things most often mustered are cattle, sheep, and other livestock that are scattered and need to be rounded up. The phrase to pass muster [L16th], ‘to be accepted as adequate or satisfactory’, was originally to pass the musters and referred to soldiers undergoing inspection without getting into trouble with senior officers. The word itself goes back to Latin monstrare ‘to show’, the source also of demonstrate [M16th] and remonstrate [E17th].