mash

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To crush food into a soft, smooth mass.

   Mash the potatoes with a little butter and milk.

2. 2
   verb

   To press down hard on something.

   He mashed the brake pedal to stop in time.

Simplified etymology

Mash has been used since Old English, with its earliest context in brewing, where it denotes a mixture of ground malt and hot water left to form wort. The word may ultimately be related to mix. MASH as an abbreviation for “mobile army surgical hospital” dates from 1950.

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

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