English

Noun

mash ‎(plural mashes)

1. (obsolete) A mesh

Etymology 2

From Middle English mash, from Old English mǣsc-, māsc-, māx-, from Proto-Germanic *maiskaz, *maiskō ‎(“mixture, mash”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyǵ-, *meyḱ- ‎(“to mix”). Akin to German Meisch, Maische ‎(“mash”), (compare meischen, maischen ‎(“to mash, wash”)), Swedish mäsk ‎(“mash”), and to Old English miscian ‎(“to mix”). See mix.

The verb comes from Middle English meshen, meissen, mæschen ‎(“to beat into a mash”).

Noun

mash ‎(countable and uncountable, plural mashes)

1. (uncountable) A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.
2. In brewing, ground or bruised malt, or meal of rye, wheat, corn, or other grain (or a mixture of malt and meal) steeped and stirred in hot water for making the wort.
3. Mashed potatoes.
4. A mixture of meal or bran and water fed to animals.
5. (obsolete): A mess; trouble.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Beaumont and Fletcher to this entry?)

Derived terms

• mash tun
• mash vat

Translations

Verb

mash ‎(third-person singular simple present mashes, present participle mashing, simple past and past participle mashed)

1. (transitive) To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; to bruise; to crush; as, to mash apples in a mill, or potatoes with a pestle.
2. (transitive) In brewing, to convert, as malt, or malt and meal, into the mash which makes wort.
3. (transitive) To press down hard (on).

   to mash on a bicycle pedal

4. (transitive, Southern US, informal) to press.
5. (transitive, Britain) To prepare a cup of tea (in a teapot), alternative to brew; used mainly in Northern England
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 10

     He took the kettle off the fire and mashed the tea.

Derived terms

• mashing
• mashed potato, mashed potatoes
• bangers and mash
• mashup

Translations

Etymology 3

Either^[1][2] by analogy with^[3]mash ‎(“to press, to soften”), or more likely from Romani^[4]masha ‎(“a fascinator, an enticer”), mashdva ‎(“fascination, enticement”). Originally used in theater,^[5] and recorded in US in 1870s. Either originally used as mash, or a backformation from masher, from masha. Leland writes of the etymology:^[6]

It was introduced by the well-known gypsy family of actors, C., among whom Romany was habitually spoken. The word “masher” or “mash” means in that tongue to allure, delude, or entice. It was doubtless much aided in its popularity by its quasi-identity with the English word. But there can be no doubt as to the gypsy origin of “mash” as used on the stage. I am indebted for this information to the late well-known impresario [Albert Marshall] Palmer of New York, and I made a note of it years before the term had become at all popular.

Verb

mash ‎(third-person singular simple present mashes, present participle mashing, simple past and past participle mashed)

1. to flirt, to make eyes, to make romantic advances

Noun

mash ‎(plural mashes)

1. (obsolete) an infatuation, a crush, a fancy
2. (obsolete) a dandy, a masher
3. (obsolete) the object of one’s affections (either sex)

Derived terms

• mash note
• masher

Translations

References

1. ↑ Mash Note at World Wide Words
2. ↑ The City in Slang, by Irving L. Allen, p. 195
3. ↑ The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, as cited at The Grammarphobia Blog: Mash notes, March 16, 2007
4. ↑ Charles Godfrey Leland in The Gypsies, p. 109, footnote 108; and preface to his poem “The Masher”, where he credits the etymology to [Albert Marshall] Palmer, a Broadway producer.
5. ↑ Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang
6. ↑ Preface to poem “The Masher”, in his Songs of the Sea and Lays of the Land, p. 243 (full text)

Anagrams

• AMHS
• hams
• HMAS
• sham