Etymograph

English

mace

Mace comes from Old French mace ‘mace (weapon)’, from Proto-West Germanic *mattjō ‘cutting tool, hoe’, and perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *met- ‘to cut’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*met-1‘to cut’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*matjô1uncertain
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mattjō2‘cutting tool, hoe’uncertain
  4. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*mattia2reconstructed
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400mace2‘mace (weapon)’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mace2‘a war club or mace’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1599mace2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *mattjō
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English mace
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “I am a king that find thee; and I…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*met-Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *mattjō‘to cut’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*matjôWiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *mattjōuncertain
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mattjōWiktionary, English mace‘cutting tool, hoe’uncertain
  4. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*mattiaWiktionary, English macereconstructed
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400maceWiktionary, English mace‘mace (weapon)’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500maceWiktionary, English mace‘a war club or mace’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1599maceWiktionary, English mace. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “I am a king that find thee; and I…”

The story

From Middle English mace, borrowed from Old French mace, mache, from Vulgar Latin *mattia, *mattea, matia, (compare Italian mazza, Spanish maza), probably from Proto-West Germanic *mattjō (‘cutting tool, hoe’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *matjô

mate, 2 more

through Proto-West Germanic *mattjō ‘cutting tool, hoe’

mason

Another origin of mace

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμάκιρ‘macir, the fragrant resin of Ailanthus triphysa’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmacir‘a kind of red spicy bark brought from India’
  3. Englishtodaymace

Today it means

noun A heavy fighting club.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mace”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Proto-West Germanic *mattjō. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *met- / mace

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