English
message
Message comes from Old French message, from Early Medieval Latin missāticum, from Latin mittō ‘to send’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-1‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmittō1‘to send’
- Early Medieval Latinmodernmissāticum1
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400message1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500message1
- Englishearliest quotation 1611message1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English message
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “I have a message from God unto thee.”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meyth₂-Wiktionary, English message‘to exchange’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmittōWiktionary, English message‘to send’
- Early Medieval LatinmodernmissāticumWiktionary, English message
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400messageWiktionary, English message
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500messageWiktionary, English message
- Englishearliest quotation 1611messageWiktionary, English message. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “I have a message from God unto thee.”
The story
Partially displaced Old English ærende (whence errand).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘to exchange’
miss, mad, commit, premise, mute, mutant, madden, intermittent, omit, mutate, transmutation, misnomer, commutative, commutation, mutable, molt, moult, 20 more
through Latin mittere ‘send’
Today it means
noun A communication, or what is communicated; any concept or information conveyed.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “message”. 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 *meyth₂- / message