Etymologically
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massa

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈmas.sa][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmas.sa][1]

Forms

massa f (genitive massae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (mâza, “barley cake, dough”), an early borrowing, possibly through Etruscan.[2][1][3] Early Latin regularly rendered Greek ⟨ζ⟩ as /ss/, and the old form was kept when later loans used ⟨z⟩.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,[4] whose soldier owns “mountains of silver, not lumps”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant a lump or mass of something that sticks together like dough, as Virgil's lump of black pitch and Ovid's lump of curdled milk, cheese.[2][5] It was used of lumps of metal worked by the Cyclopes, of the mass of the elements in primeval chaos, and of bulk or size.[2][6]

It also meant a parcel of land or an estate.[2][4] Köbler lists the sense “crowd”, and Jerome uses it for a Hebrew word meaning “burden”.[4] It survives as Italian massa, French masse and Spanish masa, and English mass came from it in the late 14th century.[1][7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of lumps of silver.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of pitch and of metal.[2][5][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the mass of chaos.[6][4]
  • 489 – A charter uses it of a landed estate.[4]
  • late 14th century – English mass is recorded.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A lump, mass; a heap.[2][1]
  2. Dough.[1][8]
  3. A lump of metal; the mass of chaos.[2]
  4. Bulk, size; a load.[2][1]
  5. An estate, a parcel of land.[2][4]

Word family

  • massalis
  • massaris
  • massula
  • massicus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn