Mass (liturgy)

==Etymology==
{{further|Ite, missa est#Meaning}}
The English noun ''Mass'' is derived from the [[Middle Latin]] {{lang|la|missa}}. The Latin word was adopted in [[Old English]] as {{lang|ang|[[:wikt:mæsse#Old English|mæsse]]}} (via a [[Vulgar Latin]] form {{lang|la|*messa}}), and was sometimes glossed as ''sendnes'' (i.e. 'a sending, dismission').<ref>Bosworth-Toller, s.v. ''sendness'' (citing Wright, ''Vocabularies'' vol. 2, 1873), "mæsse" (citing [[Ælfric of Eynsham]]).</ref>

The Latin term {{lang|la|missa}} itself was in use by the 6th century.<ref>
It is used by [[Caesarius of Arles]] (e.g.'' Regula ad monachos'', PL 67, 1102B ''Omni dominica sex missas facite'').
Before this, it occurs singularly in a letter attributed to [[Saint Ambrose]] (d. 397), ''Ego mansi in munere, missam facere coepi'' (''ep.'' 20.3, PL 16, 0995A ). F. Probst, ''Liturgie der drei ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte'', 1870, 5f.). "the fragment in Pseudo-Ambrose, 'De sacramentis' (about 400. Cf. P.L., XVI, 443), and the letter of Pope Innocent I (401–17) to Decentius of Eugubium (P.L., XX, 553). In these documents we see that the Roman Liturgy is said in Latin and has already become in essence the rite we still use." (Fortescue 1910).</ref> It is most likely derived from the concluding formula {{lang|la|[[Ite, missa est]]}} ("Go; the dismissal is made"); {{lang|la|missa}} here is a [[Late Latin]] substantive corresponding to classical {{lang|la|missio}}.

Historically, however, there have been other etymological explanations of the noun {{lang|la|missa}} that claim not to derive from the formula {{lang|la|ite, missa est}}. Fortescue (1910) cites older, "fanciful" etymological explanations, notably a latinization of Hebrew {{transl|he|[[Matzah|matzâh]]}} ({{lang|he|מַצָּה}}) "unleavened bread; oblation", a derivation favoured in the 16th century by [[Reuchlin]] and [[Martin Luther|Luther]], or Greek {{lang|grc|μύησις}} "initiation", or even Germanic {{lang|de|[[:wikt:mese#Etymology 1|mese]]}} "assembly".{{efn|The Germanic word is likely itself an early loan of the Latin {{lang|la|mensa}}, "table". "The origin and first meaning of the word, once much discussed, is not really doubtful. We may dismiss at once such fanciful explanations as that {{lang|la|missa}} is the Hebrew {{transl|he|missah}} ("oblation" — so Reuchlin and Luther), or the Greek {{transl|grc|myesis}} ("initiation"), or the German {{lang|de|Mess}} ("assembly", "market"). Nor is it the participle feminine of {{lang|la|mittere}}, with a noun understood ({{lang|la|"oblatio missa ad Deum"}}, {{lang|la|"congregatio missa"}}, i.e., {{lang|la|dimissa}}.<ref>Diez, "Etymol. Wörterbuch der roman. Sprachen", 212, and others). Fortescue, A. (1910). [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09790b.htm Liturgy of the Mass]. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.</ref>}} The French historian [[Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange|Du Cange]] in 1678 reported "various opinions on the origin" of the noun {{lang|la|missa}} "Mass", including the derivation from Hebrew {{transl|he|matzah}} ({{lang|la|Missah, id est, oblatio}}), here attributed to [[Caesar Baronius]]. The Hebrew derivation is learned speculation from 16th-century philology; medieval authorities did derive the noun {{lang|la|missa}} from the verb {{lang|la|mittere}}, but not in connection with the formula {{lang|la|ite, missa est}}.<ref name="Ducange">''De vocabuli origine variæ sunt Scriptorum sententiæ. Hanc enim quidam, ut idem Baronius, ab Hebræo Missah, id est, oblatio, arcessunt : alii a mittendo, quod nos mittat ad Deum'' Du Cange, et al., ''Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis'', éd. augm., Niort : L. Favre, 1883‑1887, t. 5, col. 412b, s.v. [http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/MISSA4 4. missa].</ref> Thus, {{lang|la|De divinis officiis}} (9th century)<ref name="pseudo-Alcuin">''De divinis officiis'', formerly attributed to [[Alcuin]] but now dated to the late 9th or early 10th century, partly based on the works of [[Amalarius]] and [[Remigius of Auxerre]]. M.-H. Jullien and F. Perelman, ''Clavis Scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevii. Auctores Galliae 735–987. II: Alcuin'', 1999, 133ff.; R. Sharpe, ''A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540'' (1997, p. 45) attributes the entire work to Remigius.</ref> explains the word as {{lang|la|"a mittendo, quod nos mittat ad Deo"}} ("from 'sending', because it sends us towards God"),<ref>In Migne, [[Patrologia Latina|PL]] 101: ''Alcuinus Incertus'', ''De divinis officiis'', caput XL, ''De celebratione missae et eius significatione'' (1247A)</ref> 
while [[Rupert of Deutz]] (early 12th century) derives it from a "dismissal" of the "enmities which had been between God and men" ({{lang|la|"inimicitiarum quæ erant inter Deum et homines"}}).<ref>This explanation is attributed by Du Cange to ''Gaufridus S Barbarae in Neustria'' ([[Godfrey of Saint Victor]], fl. 1175), but it is found in the earlier ''De divinis officiis'' by Rupert of Deutz (''Rupertus Tuitiensis''), caput XXIII, ''De ornatu altaris vel templi'': ''Sacrosanctum altaris ministerium idcirco, ut dictum est, missa dicitur, quia ad placationem inimicitiarum, quae erant inter Deum et homines, sola valens et idonea mittitur legatio.'' [[Patrologia Latina|PL]] 170, 52A.</ref>