English
mass
Mass (lump) comes from late Middle English masse, from Anglo-Norman masse, from Latin massa ‘lump, dough’, from Ancient Greek μᾶζα.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμᾶζα1mâza‘barley-cake, lump of dough’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmassa1‘lump, dough’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400masse1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500masse1‘lump, quantity of matter’
- Englishearliest quotation 1596mass1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English mass
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: “Right in the midst the Goddesse selfe did stand…”.
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμᾶζαWiktionary, English massmâza‘barley-cake, lump of dough’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmassaWiktionary, English mass‘lump, dough’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400masseWiktionary, English mass
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500masseWiktionary, English mass‘lump, quantity of matter’
- Englishearliest quotation 1596massWiktionary, English mass. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: “Right in the midst the Goddesse selfe did stand…”
The story
In late Middle English (circa 1400) as masse in the sense of "lump, quantity of matter", from Anglo-Norman masse, in Old French attested from the 11th century, via late Latin massa (‘lump, dough’), from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (mâza, “barley-cake, lump (of dough)”). The Greek noun may be derived from the verb μάσσω (mássō, “to knead”), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *maǵ- (‘to oil, knead’), although this is uncertain.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. The sense of "a large number or quantity" arises circa 1580. The scientific sense is from 1687 (as Latin massa) in the works of Isaac Newton, with the first English use (as mass) occurring in 1704.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with mass, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ǵ- ‘to knead’
- make ← macen ← macian ← *makōn ← *mak
through Ancient Greek μᾶζα ‘barley-cake, lump (of dough)’
through Latin massa ‘lump, dough’
6 more relatives in the full family tree
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Another origin of mass
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmittere‘to send’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmissa
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*messa‘Eucharist, dismissal’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150mæsse‘the mass, church festival’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500messe
- Englishtodaymass
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Today it means
noun A quantity of matter cohering so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “mass”. 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 / Ancient Greek μᾶζα / mass