MESS
NOUN 1. A disorderly or dirty accumulation, heap, or jumble: left a mess in the yard. 2a. A cluttered, untidy, usually dirty condition: The kitchen was a mess. b. A confused, troubling, or embarrassing condition; a muddle: With divorce and bankruptcy proceedings pending, his personal life was in a mess. c. One that is in such a condition: clothes that were a mess after painting the ceiling; made a mess of their marriage. 3a. An amount of food, as for a meal, course, or dish: cooked up a mess of fish. b. A serving of soft, semiliquid food: a mess of porridge. 4a. A group of people, usually soldiers or sailors, who regularly eat meals together. b. Food or a meal served to such a group: took mess with the enlistees. c. A mess hall.
VERB Inflected forms: messed, mess·ing, mess·es
TRANSITIVE VERB 1. To make disorderly or soiled; clutter or foul: a puppy that still messes the floor. 2. To botch; bungle.
INTRANSITIVE VERB 1. To cause or make a mess. 2. To use or handle something carelessly; fiddle: messed with the blender until he broke it. 3. To intrude; interfere: messing in the neighbors' affairs. 4. To take a meal in a military mess.
PHRASAL VERB mess around Informal 1. To pass time in aimless puttering. 2. To associate casually or playfully: liked to mess around with pals on days off. 3. Informal To be sexually unfaithful. mess up 1. Informal To make a mistake, especially from nervousness or confusion: messed up and dropped the ball. 2. Slang To beat up; manhandle: got messed up in a brawl.
ETYMOLOGY Middle English mes, course of a meal, food, group of people eating together, from Old French, from Late Latin missus, from Latin, past participle of mittere, to place.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
mess
A whole mess of definitions for this word, eh?
Add the fact that in Italian we have the word mèsse (meaning 'to harvest' but also 'the quantity of crop available' and 'the harvest season' and 'the amount of prise' and.....) from the latin metere (not mitere, mind you) and we have a perfect messy word, pardon good word, for any linguist.
Massively messy mass of mèsse of menanings, if you ask me...
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
It appears that the Mess Hall is gone from the US Army. A co-worker just returned from deployment in Iraq. We were talking about the military's CAC (Common Access Card) and its similarity to the new Federal Civilian PIV (Personal Identity Verification) Card; it's the new smart-card-based ID card for Federal Employees and Contractors.
Anyway, he said once he walked all the way to the DFAC and realized he had to go back to his quarters to get his CAC card to get in to the DFAC. Since it was a mile walk both ways he rarely forgot his card. "What's a DFAC?" I asked him. "Dining Facility," he replied. That sounds a bit more upscale than Mess Hall, I guess.
Anyway, he said once he walked all the way to the DFAC and realized he had to go back to his quarters to get his CAC card to get in to the DFAC. Since it was a mile walk both ways he rarely forgot his card. "What's a DFAC?" I asked him. "Dining Facility," he replied. That sounds a bit more upscale than Mess Hall, I guess.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
Amarcord
With other Italians, I was once invited to a formal dinner at a Scottish Regiment Officers’ Mess Hall. After dinner, and a good flow of assorted distilled potions, I was pressed to venture upon a dance over crossed swords at a bagpipe‘s sound…..
Yes, you are guessing right: it was a case of messing it all up in a Mess All
With other Italians, I was once invited to a formal dinner at a Scottish Regiment Officers’ Mess Hall. After dinner, and a good flow of assorted distilled potions, I was pressed to venture upon a dance over crossed swords at a bagpipe‘s sound…..
Yes, you are guessing right: it was a case of messing it all up in a Mess All
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