Etymologically
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magma

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmæɡ.mə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin magma (“dregs of an unguent”),[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek μάγμα (mágma, “thick unguent, kneaded mass”),[2][3][6][7] from μάσσω (mássō, “to knead, press into a mould”),[6][2][8] from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, fashion, fit”).[3][5] The OED thinks the Greek verb perhaps ultimately cognate with make,[2] and Merriam-Webster and Barnhart relate it to mingle.[9][4] The geological sense appears to have been borrowed from French magma, where it was coined by Durocher in his “Essai de pétrologie comparée” (1857); French had used the word in pharmacology since the late 17th century.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dregs left after a semi-liquid substance has been pressed or evaporated: about 1440, in an English translation of Palladius on husbandry.[2] Barnhart dates it to probably 1440,[4] Etymonline to the mid 15th century,[3] and Dictionary.com to 1400–50.[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense "dregs" lasted until the mid 19th century.[2][10] From 1681 the word was used for any pasty mixture of mineral or organic matter,[2][8] and in 18th-century medicine for a thick salve;[2] in pharmacy it later meant a thick suspension of a substance in water, a "milk".[2][11] The geological sense, molten rock beneath the earth's crust from which igneous rocks form, is first recorded in 1865,[2][4] though Etymonline finds it by 1859.[3] The figurative sense of a confused mass of something dates from 1928.[2][9]

Timeline

  • c. 1440 – dregs left after pressing or evaporating (obsolete by 1857).[2]
  • 1681 – a pasty mixture of mineral or organic substances.[2]
  • 1749 – a thick ointment or salve (obsolete by 1848).[2]
  • 1865 – in geology, molten rock beneath the earth's crust.[2][4] Etymonline dates it to 1859.[3]
  • 1911 – a thick suspension in water.[2]
  • 1928 – figuratively, a confused mass.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. In geology, hot molten rock beneath the earth's crust, which cools to form igneous rock and erupts at the surface as lava.[11][2]
  2. A thin paste, or a suspension of a finely divided solid in a liquid.[11][9][2]
  3. Something resembling magma; a confused mass.[9][2]
  4. (obsolete, c. 1440–1857) Dregs or sediment.[2][9][10]

Word family

  • magmatic
  • magmatism

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins