mask

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /mɑːsk/, US /mæsk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French masque (“covering to hide or protect the face”),^[2][3][4] from Italian maschera,^[2][5][6] probably from Medieval Latin masca (“mask, spectre, witch, nightmare”), a word of uncertain origin.^[2][5][4] Some derive it from an Arabic word for a buffoon, from a verb meaning to ridicule,^[3][7][4] which NODE takes as at least an influence;^[6] Etymonline also gives a southern French origin, Occitan mascarar (“to blacken”), from a pre-Indo-European root mask- “black”, after Wartburg.^[4] Barnhart notes the parallel of Latin lārva, also both ghost and mask.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A covering for the face, worn as a disguise: 1534.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

Skeat held that the masked entertainment was the earlier English sense and the disguise secondary.^[9] The figurative sense, anything used to disguise or conceal, a pretence, is from 1577,^[8] the 1570s in Etymonline,^[4] and a protective face covering from 1591.^[8] The hollow head worn by ancient Greek and Roman actors is from 1705,^[8] and a likeness of a face in wax or plaster, as a death mask, from 1780.^[8] The verb meant first to take part in a masquerade (1560), then to disguise (1579),^[2][4] and the military sense, to hide a gun battery from the enemy, is from 1706.^[4] Masking tape, used to block out surfaces before painting, is from 1927.^[4]

Timeline

• 1534 – a covering for the face.^[8][2]
• 1560 – to take part in a masquerade.^[2]
• 1577 – a pretence, a cloak.^[8]
• 1579 – to disguise.^[2]
• 1591 – a protective covering.^[8]
• 1705 – an actor's mask in antiquity.^[8]
• 1927 – masking tape.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A covering worn over all or part of the face to disguise or protect it, or for amusement.
2. Something that conceals: a mask of indifference.
3. A likeness of a face cast in a material such as plaster or wax.
4. A device covering the nose and mouth, used to supply oxygen or anaesthetic or to filter the air.

Verb

1. To cover with a mask.
2. To hide or conceal; to make indistinct.
3. To cover part of a surface to protect it, as during painting.

Word family

• maskable
• masklike
• facemask
• photomask
• masked
• unmask
• death mask
• gas mask

Related words

• mascara
• masking tape
• masquerade
• masque
• mascot

Usage notes

An unrelated mask, mesh or to enmesh, survived only in dialect.^[8][10] In Yorkshire dialect mask was also the face, with no idea of disguise.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ 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)