Etymologically
Log in

mash

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 07:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mash-, first in compounds such as masfat and masshfat (“mash vat”),[2][3][4] inherited from Old English māsc, also māx-, found mainly in compounds such as māxwyrt (“mash-wort, infused malt”).[5][6][7][8][9] The OED explains the -x forms by metathesis of the consonant cluster, and the later spellings with e by an i-mutated variant mǣsc.[5] It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *maiskaz,[10][6] the West Germanic base of Middle Low German mēsch (“mash, wort”) and Middle High German meisch (“mash; crushed grapes”), modern German Maische,[8][9][5][11] with cognates in Swedish mäsk (“mash, wort, draff”) and Danish mæsk (“mash”);[5][12] Orel and the OED compare Proto-Slavic *mězga (“sap, juice”).[10][5] Its further origin is uncertain.[5][8][11] A link with mix has been suggested by Skeat, Weekley and Hoad, and the OED notes it without deciding;[5][12][13][8][11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary point to Proto-Indo-European *meik- (“to mix”).[6][3] Klein instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *meigh- (“to sprinkle”), the source of words for dung such as mixen, and of micturition.[7] The verb is mashen, formed from the noun according to the OED and Merriam-Webster,[5][4] while Etymonline derives it from mæscan (“to mix with hot water”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In brewing, ground malt mixed with hot water to form wort: first in compounds in Old English, in Bald's Leechbook[5] or about 1000.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged first to brewing, and the OED notes that the simple noun is almost unrecorded between two late Old English instances and the 16th century: it may have been used without being written down, or have been formed again from compounds like mash-fat.[5][14] The verb, on the other hand, already meant "to crush into a soft mass" in The Owl and the Nightingale (about 1275),[5][6] besides the brewing sense, recorded before 1350.[5] In the 16th century the noun spread to a warm feed of bran or meal for animals (1577) and to any soft pulpy mass (1598, in Florio),[5][6][4] while from 1601, in Jonson, to a confused mixture or muddle.[5][6] Mashed potatoes is recorded by 1747,[6] and mash alone for them from 1904, in A. E. W. Mason.[5][14] In 19th-century American slang mash was also an infatuation (1870), a sweetheart (1879) and a verb, to flirt with (1877), whence the mash note, a love letter (1880);[5][4][6] the OED cannot settle whether the noun or the verb came first, and suggests a figurative use of the brewing word, as with the later crush.[5][2] The verb in the sense "to press hard, squeeze" is recorded in American use from 1903, and to mash out a cigarette from 1930, in D. Hammett.[5] In northern English dialect to mash tea is to infuse it.[15][9][16]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English māsc-, māx- in brewing compounds.[2][5]
  • c. 1275 – verb, to crush to a pulp, in The Owl and the Nightingale.[5]
  • 1305 – masfat, a mash vat.[2]
  • before 1350 – verb, to mix malt with hot water.[5]
  • 1577 – a warm feed of bran or meal for animals.[5][4]
  • 1598 – a soft pulpy mass.[5]
  • 1601 – a confused mixture, muddle.[5]
  • 1747 – mashed potatoes.[6]
  • 1870 – an infatuation; 1877, verb, to flirt with.[5][4]
  • 1880 – mash note.[5]
  • 1904 – mash, mashed potatoes.[5][14]
  • 1930 – to press hard; to stub out a cigarette.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. In brewing, crushed malt or grain steeped in hot water to make wort; also any fermentable mixture from which spirits are distilled.[4][16][5]
  2. A mixture of bran, meal or ground grain, dry or moistened, fed to horses, cattle or poultry.[16][4][5]
  3. A soft pulpy mass: The rain had turned the path into a mash of mud and leaves.[16][5]
  4. (British, informal) Mashed potatoes: sausage and mash.[16][5]
  5. A confused mixture; a muddle.[5][6]
  6. (dated slang) An infatuation, a crush; also a sweetheart.[4][5][17]

Verb

  1. To reduce to a soft mass by beating or pressing: Mash the bananas with a fork.[4][16][5]
  2. To crush or smash: He mashed his thumb in the car door.[4][5]
  3. In brewing, to mix ground malt with hot water.[5][16]
  4. (chiefly US) To press hard on something; to push a button or pedal.[4][5]
  5. (Northern English dialect) To infuse tea.[15][9][16]
  6. (dated slang) To flirt with.[4][5]

Word family

  • masher
  • sour mash
  • mash note

Usage notes

Barrère and Leland's slang dictionary (1890) claimed the flirting sense came from a Romani word for "to entice", spread by a theatrical family of Romani descent;[6][5] the OED finds that the Romani word appears not to exist and that the story has no other support,[5] though the American Heritage Dictionary still calls the Romani source possible.[3] Several unrelated words share the spelling: a heavy hammer for breaking stone, used in Scotland and northern England since 1691, perhaps from French masse (“sledgehammer”);[5][9] an Indian pulse, borrowed in 1801 from Sanskrit;[5] a Caribbean verb, "to spoil, damage", probably smash without its s-;[5] and the acronym MASH, a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (1950).[5][16]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com