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mass

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English has two words spelled mass: the Eucharist, from Latin missa, and “a lump, a large body”, from Latin massa.[1][2] Word Origins stresses that they are unrelated.[3]

mass1 Eucharist

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mæs/; also UK /mɑːs/[4]

Etymology

The Eucharistic service is inherited from Middle English masse, messe,[5][1] borrowed from Old English mæsse, messe,[2][5] from Vulgar Latin *messa, an alteration of Late Latin missa (“dismissal”),[2][5][1] the feminine past participle of Latin mittere (“to let go, send”),[2][5] the source of mission.[5][2] It is probably named from the closing words of the service, Ite, missa est, “Go, it is the dismissal”, or “Go, the prayer has been sent”.[2][5][6] Old English sometimes glossed the Latin word as sendnes.[2] Old Saxon missa, Old High German messa and Old Norse messa are from the same source.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English messe, before 810, and mæsse, before 901;[5] the OED's first example of a particular celebration of the Eucharist is from before 831.[8] Middle English messe and masse are both in the Peterborough Chronicle, in 1121 and 1135.[5]

Semantic evolution

After the Reformation the word was used chiefly of the Roman Catholic Eucharist.[8] A musical setting of parts of the liturgy is by the 1590s.[2] Merriam-Webster notes that Middle English masse also meant a feast day,[1] as in Christmas and Michaelmas.[9][2] Old English also had a verb, “to celebrate mass”, now rare.[7]

Timeline

  • before 810 – Old English messe.[5]
  • before 831 – a celebration of the Eucharist.[8]
  • 1590s – a musical setting.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (often Mass) The celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic and some other churches.
  2. A musical setting of the fixed parts of this service.

Word family

  • Christmas
  • Candlemas
  • Michaelmas
  • Lammas

mass2 lump, body of matter

Pronunciation

Etymology

The lump is inherited from Middle English masse,[5][1] borrowed from Old French masse (“lump, heap; crowd; ingot”),[2][5] and directly borrowed from Latin massa (“kneaded dough, lump”),[2][5] probably from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (mâza, “barley cake, lump”),[2][5][10] related to μάσσειν (mássein, “to knead”),[5][1] from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, fashion, fit”).[2] The verb is partly from the noun and partly from French masser.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An irregular lump, a body of coherent matter: before 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible,[5] the late 14th century in Etymonline[2] and about 1400 in the OED.[8]

Semantic evolution

A large quantity, amount or number is from the 1580s,[2] bulk in general from about 1600,[2] and the bulk or greater part of something from the 1620s.[2] The strict sense in physics, the quantity of matter in a body, is from 1704.[2] The masses, the common people, is from 1837, probably from French les masses.[5][3] As an adjective, “of or involving many people, done on a large scale”, it is from 1733, in the American mass meeting;[2][5] mass production is from 1920,[5] mass media from 1923, an advertising term,[5] mass murder from 1880 and mass grave from 1918.[2] The verb, “to form into a mass”, is from 1563,[5] and “to gather in masses” by the 1560s.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1382 – a lump.[5]
  • 1563 – verb, to form into a mass.[5]
  • 1580s – a large quantity.[2]
  • 1704 – mass in physics.[2]
  • 1733 – adjective, as in mass meeting.[2][5]
  • 1837 – the masses.[5]
  • 1920 – mass production.[5]
  • 1923 – mass media.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A body of matter with no definite shape; a lump.
  2. A large amount or number; the greater part: the mass of voters.
  3. (physics) The quantity of matter in a body, measured by its inertia.
  4. the masses: The common people.

Adjective

  1. Of or involving many people; on a large scale: mass production.

Verb

  1. To gather or form into a mass.

Word family

  • massive
  • amass
  • mass media
  • mass production
  • massy

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.