missa

Forms

missa f (plural missas)^[1] Houaiss records myssa in 1365 and mjssa in the 14th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin missa (“dismissal, Mass”), written Old Galician-Portuguese missa in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun is the feminine of missus, past participle of mittō (“to let go, send”), taken from the closing formula of the service, ite, missa est: Houaiss and Cunha read them as “go, [the prayer] has been sent [to God]”.^[2][3][5] Corominas thinks of the host or offering that is sent up, while Nascentes reports the view that the noun itself meant the sending away of the faithful.^[6][7] Medieval Latin used the word for the dismissal of the faithful at the end of Mass, for a concluding prayer, and then for any prayer or divine office.^[8]

The same Latin word is Galician misa, Spanish misa, Catalan missa, French messe and Italian messa.^[9][1] García de Diego calls the Spanish word learned, and the Wiktionary entry for the old language treats the Portuguese one as a learned borrowing too.^[10][4]

The Latin verb is traced to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”); de Vaan explains the sense “let go, send” from an original “exchange”.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters already speak of masses: cum officio passionis et misse in 914 and pro nobis ibidem missas facere in 983.^[12] The first Portuguese record is the testament of Afonso II in 1214: fazam cantar una missa por mia alma por sempre “let them have a Mass sung for my soul for ever”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already have the set phrases cantar missa, dizer missa and oyr missa, with missa chãa for a said Mass and gran missa for a solemn one.^[12] Viterbo notes that the word once also covered the night and evening offices and the part of the service that catechumens could attend.^[13] From the liturgy the word passed to music, for a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass.^[2][14]

Missionaries carried the word abroad: it is misa in Kabuverdianu, Papiamentu, Malay and Nheengatu, and Old Tupi had missa-pytuna.^[1]

Timeline

• 914 – a Latin charter has cum officio passionis et misse.^[12]
• 1214 – the testament of Afonso II asks for una missa to be sung for his soul.^[12]
• 13th century – cantar missa, dizer missa and gran missa in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[12][2][3]
• 1365 – the spelling myssa.^[2]
• 14th century – first record of missal, spelt mjssal.^[3]
• c. 1430 – the word in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists missa de Requiem and dizer missa.^[16]
• 1755 – Folqman gives ouvir missa and ajudar à missa.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Catholicism) The Mass, the celebration of the Eucharist by a priest at the altar.^[2][18][1]
2. (music) A musical setting of the texts of the Mass.^[2][19]
3. (music) A composition on the Kyrie and the Gloria only.^[2]

Word family

• missal

Related words

• missão
• míssil
• meter
• Latin missa
• Galician misa

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include missa cantada, missa campal (an open-air Mass), missa do galo (midnight Mass at Christmas) and missa de corpo presente (a funeral Mass with the body present).^[2][14] In Portugal ajudar à missa also means, figuratively, to back someone in gossip or wrongdoing.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. missa
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. missa
4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. missa
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. missa
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. misa
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. missa
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. missa
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5610
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. missa
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. missa
13. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 135
14. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. missa
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. missa
16. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. missa
17. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. missa
18. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. missa
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6216
20. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. missa