mask

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A covering for the face, used for protection or to hide who you are.

   The nurse wore a mask to protect against infection.

2. 2
   verb

   To hide a feeling, fact, or quality.

   She smiled to mask her disappointment.

3. 3
   noun

   Something used to hide the truth; a false appearance.

   His cheerful jokes were just a mask for his sadness.

Borrowed from Middle French masque (“a covering to hide or protect the face”), from Italian maschera (“mask, disguise”), from (a byform of, see it for more) Medieval Latin masca, mascha, a borrowing of Proto-West Germanic *maskā, from which English mesh and mask (“mesh”) (below at Etymology 2) are inherited. Doublet of masque and mesh. Replaced Old English grīma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.

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