massa Latin · revision 3700

15 Oct 2026, 19:57 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=Plautus|origins=grc μᾶζα}}
+ 
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈmas.sa]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmas.sa]^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Forms==
+ '''massa''' ''f'' (genitive massae); first declension^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[bor|grc|μᾶζα|tr=mâza|t=barley cake, dough]], an early borrowing, possibly through Etruscan.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Saalfeld 1874) Early Latin regularly rendered Greek ⟨ζ⟩ as /ss/, and the old form was kept when later loans used ⟨z⟩.^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ It is found from Plautus onwards,^(Köbler 2010) whose soldier owns “mountains of silver, not lumps”.^(OLD 2012)
+ 
+ ==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.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) 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.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+ 
+ It also meant a parcel of land or an estate.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) Köbler lists the sense “crowd”, and Jerome uses it for a Hebrew word meaning “burden”.^(Köbler 2010) It survives as Italian ''massa'', French ''masse'' and Spanish ''masa'', and English ''mass'' came from it in the late 14th century.^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Timeline==
+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of lumps of silver.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of pitch and of metal.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the mass of chaos.^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 489 – A charter uses it of a landed estate.^(Köbler 2010)
+ * late 14th century – English ''mass'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # A lump, [[m|en|mass]]; a heap.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+ # Dough.^(Wiktionary)^(Georges 1913)
+ # A lump of metal; the mass of chaos.^(OLD 2012)
+ # Bulk, size; a load.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+ # An estate, a parcel of land.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ 
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[massalis]]
+ * [[massaris]]
+ * [[massula]]
+ * [[massicus]]
+ 
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[en|mass]]
+ 
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}