Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/257

Mer   and  from  (3),  marc, marges. ,, ‘to mark, note, observe,’ from and  męrken, ‘to give heed to, perceive, understand, note’; a derivative of  ( *markjan); hence  merchier, ‘to designate.’ ,, ‘crazy,’ from the  meschuggâ.  ,, ‘mass, fair,’ from mësse, misse, , ‘mass, church festival, fair’  mëssa, missa,. So too the word on which it is based, missa, signifies not only ‘incruentum christianorum sacrificium,’ but also ‘feast of a saint’ (“quod in eo Missa sollemnis peragitur”). The latter sense led to missa,  mësse, ‘fair,’ because this “was wont to be held on account of the great concourse of people” on saints' days (  foire, ‘fair,’  ‘holiday,’ under ). missa, “as is well known, originated in missa est, scil. concio, the words spoken by the deacon when dismissing the congregation which did not partake of the sacrament”; from this the corresponding cognates,  messa and  messe, are derived. The vowel in mœsse,  ( messe),  mass, is abnormal; the latter also signifies feast in Christmas and Lammas (see ). ,, , , and.  ,, ‘to measure, survey,’ from mëȥȥen,  mëȥȥan, ‘to measure, mete out, distribute, consider, test’;   mëtan,  meten, ‘to measure,’  mëtan, ‘to measure, value, deem,’  mitan, ‘to measure’; also allied to  mitôn, ‘to ponder, reflect on’;  mëȥȥôn, ‘to moderate.’ The  stem mē̆t, ‘to measure, estimate, ponder’ , is based on pre- mē̆d, and cannot, because of the non-permutation, be connected with  metiri;   modus,  μέδομαι μήδομαι, ‘to consider, estimate,’ μέδων, ‘adviser,’ μέδιμνος, ‘medimnus’ (about 12 galls.),  modius,  mitaþs, ‘corn measure.’ See  (2).  ,, from the  męȥȥer, ‘knife.’ The word has undergone strange transformations; it is an abbreviation of męȥȥeres,  męȥȥiras, męȥȥirahs, , the etymology of which had grown obscure; the variants maȥ-sahs, męȥȥi-sahs, show, however, that męȥȥirahs is a compound meaning ‘food-sword.’ With regard to  mats, ,  maȥ, ,  męte,  ,  meat,   and. sahs, seax,, ‘sword, knife,’ whence the name Saxons, is usually connected with  saxum, because knives were  made of stone. The compound męȥȥi-rahs shows the change of medial s (z) to r. *matisahs is also indicated by męzas for *mętsahs,  and  mes,  męte-seax, ‘food-knife, dagger.’   ,, from the  męssinc ( -ges), , ‘brass, latten’; a derivative of ,  massa (from  massa?), ‘sow-metal’;  mœstling (with a suffix), ‘brass’ (whence  maslin?), is also derived from the same source; see   messing, , ‘brass.’ Contrary to this prevalent opinion, we have to observe that the derivative is more widely diffused than the  word, and it is inconceivable that the word was derived independently in the various languages; hence these cognates cannot be associated with  massa unless a derived word can be adduced as the base of the  words.   ,, ‘hybrid, composed of and  elements in the same word’; the term was first recorded in the last , but it originated probably in the 16th or 17th , when  and  were struggling for the mastery.  ,, from the  męsnœre, męssenœre, , ‘sexton, sacristan’ (the latter connected with ), from late  męsinâri (not messinâri), , based on  *masinarius for mansionarius, ‘custos et conservatoraedis sacrae, aedituus, ostarius’;  mansionarius was also an official in the court of the Frankish kings ( mansio, ‘house,’  to  maison). and.   ,, ‘mead,’ from mët, mëte,  mëtu, mitu, , ‘mead’;   meodo,  mead,  mjǫðr;  *midus, , ‘mead,’ is by chance not recorded. A common and also common Aryan word; Aryan *medhu,  mádhu,, ‘sweetness, honey, sweet drink,  μέθυ, ‘wine’ (to which μεθύω, ‘to be drunk, and μέθη, ‘drunkenness’),  medŭ, ‘honey, wine,’  midùs, ‘mead,’ medùs, ‘honey,’  mid. To these is allied mádhu, ‘sweet, lovely,’ hence the various meanings of medhu, ‘mead, honey, wine,’  ‘that which is sweet,’ perhaps (according to  μεθύω,) ‘intoxicating liquid.’. 