Etymologically
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mesh

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Middle Dutch maesche (also masche; modern Dutch maas),[2][3][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *maskwǭ.[3][7] The OED allows that it may instead continue an unrecorded Old English noun of the same Germanic origin, but thinks a borrowing from Dutch far more likely, since many fishing terms came into English from Dutch.[2] Etymonline and Barnhart derive it from late max (“net”), earlier mæscre (“mesh”),[8][9] a form in which the consonants of the Germanic stem were transposed;[9][10] the Oxford Dictionary of English suggests an unrecorded Old English word reinforced by the Dutch one.[11] The cognates include Old Norse mǫskvi (“mesh”), Old Saxon masca, Old High German masca and German Masche (“mesh, loop”).[8][12][7][4] Outside Germanic they are compared with Lithuanian mazgas (“knot”) and megzti (“to knit”),[8][12][3][7] from an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *mezg- (“to knit, plait, twist”).[8][12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An open space between the threads of a net: in the later Wycliffite Bible, about 1395,[2][9] written mesche.[9][8] The forms mask and maske are found from 1343.[9]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the word as the space between the threads of a net and thought it would better be spelled mash, as it was commonly pronounced.[13] From 1602 it also meant the thread surrounding one hole, often in the plural,[2] and later, from 1725, the threads of a net collectively, and so any netting of thread or wire.[2] The figurative "snare, entanglement" appears in 1541,[2] and the verb was used figuratively, "to entangle", in 1532, in Thomas More, before its literal sense "to catch in a net" (before 1547).[2][8][9] Technical senses followed: an interlaced structure in a living body (1712), a closed loop of an electrical circuit (1881), surgical netting (1900), steel reinforcement for concrete (1904), a measure of the fineness of a sieve or grid (1926) and a network of linked computers (1977).[2] The engagement of gear teeth gave the verb's intransitive sense by 1850,[2][8] which led to the figurative "to fit together, work in harmony" in 1944, in H. G. Wells.[2][8] In Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset and Somerset dialect a mesh was the run of a hare or rabbit through a hedge, or a gap made there.[14]

Timeline

  • 1343 – mask, maske.[9]
  • c. 1395 – mesche, an opening in a net.[2][9]
  • 1532 – verb, to entangle (figurative).[2][8]
  • 1541 – noun, a snare (figurative).[2]
  • before 1547 – verb, to catch in a net.[2][9]
  • 1725 – netting, mesh material.[2]
  • 1850 – verb, of gear teeth, to engage.[2][8]
  • 1904 – steel reinforcement for concrete.[2]
  • 1944 – verb, to fit together harmoniously.[2][8]
  • 1977 – (computing) a network of linked processors.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A material made of threads, wires or strands woven or joined into a net with even gaps: The vents are covered with fine steel mesh.
  2. Any of the open spaces between the strands of a net or sieve.
  3. Something that traps or holds like a net; a complex, entangling situation.
  4. The engagement of the teeth of gearwheels: in mesh.
  5. (computing) A network in which each node is linked directly to several others.

Verb

  1. Of gear teeth, to engage with each other.
  2. To fit together or work well together: Their two styles of teaching never quite meshed.
  3. To catch in a net; to entangle.

Word family

  • meshy
  • meshed
  • enmesh
  • inmesh
  • intermesh
  • meshwork
  • synchromesh
  • unmesh

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ 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)