Etymology: < Anglo-Norman message, missage, Old French message (11th cent. in sense ‘message, communication, news’; c1100 in sense ‘messenger, envoy’), partly < post-classical Latin missaticum message, errand (9th cent.; from c980 in British sources) < classical Latin missus , past participle of mittere to send (see mission n.) + post-classical Latin -aticum -age suffix, and partly < post-classical Latin missaticus messenger, envoy (9th cent.; from 1086 in British sources) < classical Latin missus , past participle of mittere + post-classical Latin -aticus -atic suffix. Compare Old Occitan mesatge, messatge message, messenger (12th cent.), Catalan missatge message, messenger, servant (13th cent.), Spanish mensaje message, (now regional) messenger (1207; a1250 in form †message), Portuguese mensagem message (1512; 13th cent. in form †message), Italian messaggio message (a1250), (archaic) messenger (14th cent.).Senses of the word attested earlier in Old French (in addition to those noted above) include ‘mission, errand’ (c1160; compare sense A. 1a) and ‘communication by a divinely inspired messenger’ (a1225; compare sense A. 3b). Middle English and early modern English forms with stem vowel a perhaps reflect an unattested Anglo-Norman form with a (compare forms s.v. messenger n.), or are perhaps by analogy with variation between a and e in mass n.¹

Etymology: < message n.