Massage

How to spell massage

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce massage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does massage mean?

1. nounThe act of rubbing and kneading the muscles and joints to relieve tension or pain.
2. verbTo rub and knead muscles or skin with the hands, or figuratively to manipulate figures or facts.

Massage in a sentence

• noun

  After the long flight she booked a deep tissue massage at the hotel spa.

• verb

  The therapist will gently massage the sore muscles around her neck.

• noun

  A firm shoulder massage eased the knots from hours at the desk.

• verb

  Warm the lotion before you massage it into the skin.

Where does massage come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English from French in the nineteenth century, around the 1870s, when the practice of therapeutic rubbing became fashionable in Europe. The French noun massage was built on the verb masser, meaning 'to knead' or 'to rub down', which is generally traced to the Arabic massa, 'to touch, feel, or handle'. Some scholars instead link it to the Greek massein, meaning 'to knead' (the same root that gives us 'mass' in the sense of a kneaded lump of dough), so the precise path is debated. Whichever origin is correct, the core idea has always been the working of soft tissue with the hands. The double 's' and the soft 'g' ending pronounced 'zh' both reflect the French spelling, which is exactly why writers sometimes slip and confuse it with the unrelated word 'message'.

How the word is built

• massage (from French masser: to knead, rub)
• -age (noun suffix)