mass

Etymology 1

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 is derived from the verb μάσσω (mássō, “to knead”), ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European *maǵ- (“to oil, knead”). Doublet of masa. 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.

noun

1. (physical) Matter, material.
   1. A quantity of matter cohering together so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size.
      And if it were not for theſe Principles the Bodies of the Earth, Planets, Comets, Sun, and all things in them would grow cold and freeze, and become inactive Maſſes ; […]. 1718 [1704], Isaac Newton, Opticks, 2nd edition
      […] and because a deep mass of continual sea is slower stirred to rage. 1821 [1582], George Buchanan, The History of Scotland, from the Earliest Accounts of that Nation, to the Reign of King James VI, volume 1 (in English), translation of Rerum Scoticarum Historia by an unnamed translator, page 133
   2. (obsolete) Precious metal, especially gold or silver.
      Right in the midst the Goddesse selfe did stand / Upon an altar of some costly masse […]. 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10
   3. (physics) The quantity of matter which a body contains, irrespective of its bulk or volume. It is one of four fundamental properties of matter. SI unit of mass: kilogram.
   4. (pharmacology) A medicinal substance made into a cohesive, homogeneous lump, of consistency suitable for making pills; as, blue mass.
   5. (medicine) A palpable or visible abnormal globular structure; a tumor.
   6. (bodybuilding) Excess body weight, especially in the form of muscle hypertrophy.
      After all, muscle maniacs go "ga ga" over mass no matter how it's presented. 1988, Steve Holman, “Christian Conquers Columbus”, in Ironman, volume 47, number 6, pages 28–34
   7. (proscribed) Synonym of weight
2. A large quantity; a sum.
   1. Bulk; magnitude; body; size.
      Witness this army of such mass and charge / Led by a delicate and tender prince, c. 1599-1601, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 4, scene 4
   2. The principal part; the main body.
      Night closed upon the pursuit, and aided the mass of the fugitives in their escape. 1881, Thucydides, translated by Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides translated into English, volume 1, page 310
   3. A large body of individuals, especially persons.
      Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses 1970, “War Pigs”, in Paranoid, performed by Black Sabbath
      The mass of spectators didn't see the infraction on the field.
      A mass of ships converged on the beaches of Dunkirk.
   4. (in the plural) The lower classes of persons.
      The masses are revolting.

verb

1. (transitive) To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to bring together into masses; to assemble.
   They would unavoidably mix up the whole of these declarations, and mass them together, although the Judge might direct the Jury not to do so. 1829, William Burke, John Macnee, Trial of William Burke and Helen M'Dougal: Before the High Court of Judiciary, William Hare
   Every bend on the hill had acted like a funnel to mass them together in this peculiar way. 1857, Edward Henry Nolan, The Illustrated History of the War against Russia, Parts 93-111, page 432
   Where there is too great a repetition of forms, light and shade will break them up or mass them together. 1869, H. P. Robinson, Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiariscuro for Photographers
2. (intransitive) To assemble in a mass

adj

1. Involving a mass of things; concerning a large quantity or number.
   There is evidence of mass extinctions in the distant past.
   The national liberation movement had not yet developed to a sufficiently mass scale. 1988, V. V. Zagladin, Vitaly Baskakov, International Working Class and Communist Movement: Historical Record, 1830s to Mid-1940s, page 236
   With perhaps unprecedented magnitude and clarity, Auschwitz brings theologians and philosophers face to face with the facts of suffering on an incredibly mass scale, with issues poignantly raised concerning the absence of divine intervention or the inadequacies of divine power or benevolence; […]. 1989, Creighton Peden, Larry E. Axel (editors), God, Values, and Empiricism: Issues in Philosophical Theology, page 2
   The air arms did more than provide the warring nations with individual heroes, for their individual exploits occurred within the context of an increasingly mass aerial effort in a war of the masses. 2010, John Horne, A Companion to World War I, page 159
2. Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.
   Mass unemployment resulted from the financial collapse.
   Every agency is sold on use of mass media today — or at least, it thinks it is — and what can be "masser" than television? 1958, Child Welfare, volume 37, page 2
   While agreeing with Bell on the unlikelihood that any fully mass — in the sense of atomized and alienated — society has ever existed,⁵ I believe that at any point in time, in any social system, some elements may be characterized as "masses." 1970, James Wilson White, The Sōkagakkai and Mass Society, page 3
   Undoubtedly this is the case; at least it is "masser" than in Pinchot's time. 1974, Edward Abraham Cohn, The Political Economy of Environmental Enhancement, page 91
   But it also highlights the changes that have taken place in gay and AIDS activism, and the way that a formerly mass movement has been recast. 1999 December, Sara Miles, “Rebel with a Cause”, in Out, page 132
   The director didn't make the images up; they're there, but in putting that one slice of gay life into the massest of mass media — the amoral promiscuity, the drug and alcohol abuse, the stereotyped flamboyance and campiness, the bitchy queeniness and flimsy values — something very dangerous happens […] 21 November 2000, Howie Klein, “Queer as role models”, in The Advocate, number 825, page 9
   […] if only because it promises the ‘massest’ of mass markets. 2001, Brian Moeran, Asian Media Productions, page 13
   Finally, in the past century, secular culture itself has undergone a transition from predominantly folk styles to an overwhelmingly mass culture, […]. 2004, John R. Hall, Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History, page 79
   As a right, we come to expect it, and that happens through the mass media, the massest of which, by far, is television. 2007, Thomas Peele, Queer popular culture: literature, media, film, and television, page 11

Etymology 2

From Middle English messe, masse, from Old English mæsse (“the mass, church festival”) and Old French messe, from Vulgar Latin *messa (“Eucharist, dismissal”), from Late Latin missa, noun use of feminine past participle of classical Latin mittere (“to send”), from ite, missa est (“go, (the assembly) is dismissed”), reanalyzed as "go, [that] is the missa", last words of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Compare Dutch mis (“mass”), German Messe (“mass”), Danish messe (“mass”), Swedish mässa (“mass; expo”), Icelandic messa (“mass”). More at mission.

noun

1. (Christianity) The Eucharist, now especially in Roman Catholicism.
2. (Christianity) Celebration of the Eucharist.
3. (Christianity, usually as the Mass) The sacrament of the Eucharist.
4. A musical setting of parts of the mass.

verb

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To celebrate mass.