MESS (an

See also:

• ADAPTATION (from Lat. adaptare. to fit to)

adaptation of O. Fr.

See also:

• MES

mes, mod. mets; Ital. messo; derived from the

See also:

• LATE

Late

See also:

• LAT

Lat. missum, past participle of mittere " to send or

See also:

• PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place in position ")  , a service of meat, a dish sent to table . The term is also used of the persons who are in the habit of eating their meals together, and thus particularly of the parties into which a ship's company or a regiment is divided, either 'according to their rank, or for convenience in catering . Originally, a mess in this sense was a group of four persons sitting atone table and helped from the same dishes . In the Inns of Court, London, the original number is preserved, four benchers or four students dining together . In early times the word mess was applied to food of a more or less liquid character, as soup, porridge, broth, &c . It is probably in allusion to the sloppy nature of semi-liquid messes of food that a mess has come also to mean a state of disorder, confusion and discomfort . Skeat takes the word in this sense to be a variant of " mash," originally to mix up .