English
mensa
Mensa comes from Latin mēnsa ‘table, altar’.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English mensa
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1993, B. Don Taylor, The Complete Training Course for Altar Guilds: “Some churches also have an altar stone, a separate…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmēnsaWiktionary, English mensa‘table, altar’
- Englishearliest quotation 1993mensaWiktionary, English mensa. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1993, B. Don Taylor, The Complete Training Course for Altar Guilds: “Some churches also have an altar stone, a separate…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’
month, moon, moral, meal, sunny, meter, moody, metric, metre, meta, asymmetry, menstrual, madder, metrology, firman, mete, metis, moodiness, metra, menses, 62 more
through Proto-Italic *mētis
through Latin mētior ‘to measure’
measure, dimensional, dimension, commensurate, 19 more
through Latin mēnsus ‘measured’
through Latin mēnsa ‘table, altar’
Today it means
noun In planetary geology, a large mesa-like area of raised land.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “mensa”. 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 / Latin mēnsa / mensa