Etymology

massive

M3A1S1S1I1V4E1

Today it means: Very large in size or extent. Full definition →

Middle English massif ← Middle French massif ← Irish mas
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The story

  1. Irish · derived frommas“fine, handsome”
  2. Middle French · derived frommassif
  3. Middle English · inherited frommassif
  4. English todaymassive

From Middle English massif, from Middle French massif, equivalent to mass + -ive. The Irish sense is possibly derived from Irish mas (“fine, handsome”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Frenchmassif all →

massif

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.