Jack saw an episode of The
Mentalist that took place on a
prep school campus. Prominently displayed in one scene was a sign pointing to
the Mess Hall. Why, Jack wonders, is the dining area called a mess?
It came into
Anglo-Norman from Old French, which, in turn, was indebted to a Latin word. The
basic meaning was a portion of food. In Latin, it was a portion of food sent (missus) from the food preparation area to the dining
area. In time, the emphasis moved from a portion of food to the place where it
was consumed to the untidy state of a table after a meal to a disheveled
person, whether physically or emotionally messed up.
In fact, it went through
such a range of meanings that I think it’s instructive to list them as
presented in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- A serving of food; a course; a meal; a
prepared dish of a specified kind of food.
- The quantity of milk given by a cow at one
milking.
- A quantity (of meat, fruit, etc.) sufficient
to make a dish.
- A take or haul of fish, esp. one sufficient
to provide a meal.
- A (usually large) quantity or number of
something.
- A portion or serving of liquid or pulpy food
such as milk, broth, porridge, boiled vegetables, etc.
- A kind of liquid or mixed food for an animal.
- An unappetizing, unpalatable, or disgusting
dish or concoction; an ill-assorted mixture of any kind.
- A situation or state of affairs that is
confused or presents numerous difficulties; a troubled or embarrassed
state or condition; a predicament.
- A dirty or untidy state of things or of a
place; a collection of disordered things, producing such a state.
- A person who is dirty or untidy in
appearance; (fig.) a person whose life or affairs are disorganized, esp.
due to the influence of drink or drugs used habitually; an ineffectual or
incompetent person.
- Excrement, esp. that of an animal deposited
in an inappropriate place.
- Nonsense, rubbish; insolence, abuse.
- An entertaining, witty, or puzzling person.
- Any of the small groups, normally of four
people sitting together and served from the same dishes, into which the
company at a banquet was usually divided. Hence: any company of persons,
esp. members of an institution or professional body, who regularly take
their meals together.
- Each of the groups into which a military
unit or ship's company is divided, the members of each group taking their
meals together. Later also: the place where meals are taken by such
groups; a place where personnel, esp. of similar rank, regularly eat or
take recreation together.
- Military: Mealtime, or a meal, which takes place at
a mess.
- A communal meal.
- A company or group of four persons or
things.
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