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Muad'dib is derived from Arabic. The word is a participle active. This fictional word could be derived two from probable Arabic-Semitic roots. The root ’db is frequently suggested, meaning as participle active mu’addib, a teacher,in particular a kindergartden teacher who brings cultivated manners and might be the author of fine literature. Herbert might especially be attracted by the combination of both meanings.

For the Fremen language meaning of 'jumping mouse' muad'dib, the Near Eastern jerboa might have been used as model, although Frank Herbert wants to direct the immediate attention to the Northern American jumping mouse. F. Herbert's style likes to direct readers in his universe into different directions. The jerboa is at home in the Arabian desert. It has a strong meaning in Arab mythology. One of the most important is that in pre-Islamic times the jerboa, a small animal, destroyed the centuries old monumental stone-built dam of Marib in Yemen. The stream (sail al-arim) tamed by the dam watered the two desert gardens (oases) of Marib and was its vital life stream. The jumping mouse, jerboa dug a hole underneath until it collapsed. After the historical destruction of the dam about 580 AD, life was not anymore possible in Marib. It became deserted.In the context of Herbert's Arabic-Islamic symbolism, this connection - 'the small destroys the monumental', water, desert, changing of ecology by Muad'dib - offers a further meaning.