Where does “Mass” come from?

Mass (Luxembourgish) comes from French masse, from Old French mace, from Vulgar Latin mattia, from Latin mateola, from Latin -ulus, from Proto-Italic -olos, from Proto-Italic -elos, from Proto-Indo-European -e-lós — Forms agent nouns from verbal roots.

Mass (Luxembourgish): mass; Mass; mass; paste, dough

Definitions

  1. mass; Mass; mass; paste, dough

Ancestry of “Mass”, step by step

Mass traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.

via French masse

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchmassea paste, a dough; large amount or quantity of...
2Old Frenchmacemace weapon
3Vulgar Latinmattia
4LatinmateolaThe meaning of this term is uncertain....
5Latin-ulusUsed to form a diminutive of a noun, indicating...
6Proto-Italic-olos
7Proto-Italic-elosForms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns
8Proto-Indo-European-e-lós
9Proto-Indo-European-lósForms agent nouns from verbal roots

via Middle High German misse

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle High Germanmisse
2Old High GermanmissaMass
3LatinmissaMass; Christian eucharistic liturgy; nominative...
4Latinmissumaccusative supine of mittō; inflection of...
5Latinmittōto send, dispatch, cause to go, let go, release, discharge
6Proto-Italicmeitōto put forth, put out
7Proto-Indo-Europeanmeyth₂-to hurt; to exchange, remove; to replace, to...

via German Maße

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1GermanMaßemass quantity of matter
2Middle High Germanmasse

Words derived from “Mass

Every word from Proto-Indo-European -lósEvery word from Latin -ulusEvery word from Latin mateola