QUESTION: Meaning & etymology of "mosey"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>... I'd like to ask you a question about the origin and meaning of the
>word "mosey."
>
>      Example, from _Huckleberry_Finn_: "So I'll mosey along now,
>      and smouch a couple of case-knives"

It appears that the sense "depart"/"decamp" was earlier than the modern
sense "amble".

The reference directly to the Biblical Moses makes six suggested origins to
my knowledge. The others:

(1) from a surname "Moses", belonging to someone who absconded in the early
19th Century or so;

(2) from a given name "Moses", attached to a 19th Century peddler who
ambled along;

(3) from "vamoose" [semantically very apt, and there is a variant "vamose"
... however "mosey"is apparently attested earlier than "vamoose"];

(4) from "mose" = "wander in a daze" or so [supposedly in the EDD];

(5) from "mouse" = "flee" [verb form of the noun "mouse"].

I don't know, myself ....

-- Doug Wilson