mess: [13] Mess comes via Old French mes from late Latin missus, a derivative of the verb mittere ‘send’ (source of English admit, mission, transmit, etc). This meant ‘sending, placement’, and its original metaphorical application was to a ‘round or heat of a contest’, but it was also used for a ‘course of a meal’, and this was the sense in which it originally entered English.
Traces of the food connection survive in the mess of pottage (literally a ‘dish of porridge or gruel’ made from lentils) for which Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, and in the sense ‘communal eating place’ (as in ‘sergeants’ mess’), which developed in the 16th century. But the main present-day meaning, ‘disorderly thing or condition’, did not emerge until as recently as the 19th century, apparently based on the notion of a mess as a ‘dish of assorted foodstuffs dumped unceremoniously and without thought on to a plate’. => admit, commit, mission, permit, transmit
mess (n.)
c. 1300, "food for one meal, pottage," from Old French mes "portion of food, course at dinner," from Late Latin missus "course at dinner," literally "a placing, a putting (on a table, etc.)," from past participle of mittere "to put, place," in classical Latin "to send, let go" (see mission).
Meaning "communal eating place" (especially a military one) is first attested 1530s, from earlier sense of "company of persons eating together" (early 15c.), originally a group of four. Sense of "mixed food," especially for animals, (1738) led to contemptuous use for "jumble, mixed mass" (1828) and figurative sense of "state of confusion" (1834), as well as "condition of untidiness" (1851). General use for "a quantity" of anything is attested by 1830. Meaning "excrement" (of animals) is from 1903.
mess (v.)
late 14c., "serve up in portions," from mess (n.). Meaning "take one's meals" is from 1701; that of "make a mess" is from 1853. Related: Messed; messing. To mess with "interfere, get involved" is from 1903; mess up "make a mistake, get in trouble" is from 1933 (earlier "make a mess of," 1909), both originally American English colloquial.
双语例句
1. England's European Championship plans are in a right mess.
英格兰队的欧洲锦标赛作战计划乱七八糟。
来自柯林斯例句
2. A waiter mopped up the mess as best he could.
一名侍者尽力抹掉溅出的食物。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Except for the remarkably tidy kitchen, the place was a mess.
除了厨房特别干净外，这地方一片狼藉。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The wrong shampoo can leave curly hair in a tangled mess.
