Etymograph

English

mask

Mask comes from Middle French masque ‘a covering to hide or protect the face’, from Italian maschera ‘mask, disguise’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mosgʷ- ‘netting, mesh, knot, loop’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mosgʷ-‘netting, mesh, knot, loop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maskwǭ‘loop, knot’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*maskā‘mesh, net’reconstructed
  4. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500masca
  5. Italianc. 1300–presentmaschera‘mask, disguise’
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600masque‘a covering to hide or protect the face’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588mask

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mosgʷ-‘netting, mesh, knot, loop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maskwǭ‘loop, knot’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*maskā‘mesh, net’reconstructed
  4. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500masca
  5. Italianc. 1300–presentmaschera‘mask, disguise’
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600masque‘a covering to hide or protect the face’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588mask

Earliest quotation: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “Ioue sometime maſked in a ſhepheards weede, And by…”

The story

Replaced Old English grīma (‘mask’), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (‘visor, mask’) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.

Linked words

through Proto-West Germanic *maskā ‘mesh, net’

mesh

through Medieval Latin masca

mascot

through Italian maschera ‘mask, disguise’

mascara, 2 more

Another origin of mask

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mosgʷ-‘netting, mesh, knot, loop’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*maskwǭ‘loop, knot’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*maskā‘mesh, netting, mask’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150max‘net’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500maske
  6. Englishtodaymask

Another origin of mask

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150māx‘mash’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*maskreconstructed
  3. Englishtodaymask

Another origin of mask

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500masken
  2. Englishtodaymask

Today it means

noun A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *mosgʷ- / mask

Shirt and support for this word