The story
- Old English · derived frommæsse“the mass, church festival”
- Old English · inherited from-mæsse
- Middle English · inherited from-masse
- English today-mas
From Middle English -masse, -messe, from Old English -mæsse, the second element in several ritual and holiday names (e.g. Candelmæsse, Cristes mæsse, hlāfmæsse, etc.), from Old English mæsse (“the mass, church festival”). Compare Dutch mis, German Messe, Danish messe, Swedish mässa, Icelandic messa.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishmæsse all →
massMichaelmas term
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.