Where does “mace” come from?
Mace comes from Middle English mace, from Old French mace, from Latin mattea, from Latin massa meaning "lump or mass," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mey- meaning "to change or move."
mace (English): A heavy fighting club; A ceremonial form of this...
Definitions
- A heavy fighting club; A ceremonial form of this...
Ancestry of “mace”, step by step
mace traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English mace
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | mace | A war club or mace; A club used for ceremonial... |
| 2 | Old French | mace | mace weapon |
| 3 | Vulgar Latin | mattia | — |
| 4 | Latin | mateola | The meaning of this term is uncertain.... |
| 5 | Latin | -ulus | Used to form a diminutive of a noun, indicating... |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -olos | — |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |