different between mash vs mush

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?sh, IPA^(key): /mæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

From Middle English mash, from Old English m?s?-, m?s?-, m?x-, from Proto-Germanic *maiskaz, *maisk? (“mixture, mash”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey?-, *mey?- (“to mix”). Akin to German Meisch, Maische (“mash”), (compare meischen, maischen (“to mash, wash”)), Swedish mäsk (“mash”), and to Old English miscian (“to mix”). See mix.

Noun

mash (countable and uncountable, plural mashes)

1. (uncountable) A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.
2. (brewing) Ground or bruised malt, or meal of rye, wheat, corn, or other grain (or a mixture of malt and meal) steeped and stirred in hot water for making the wort.
3. Mashed potatoes.
4. A mixture of meal or bran and water fed to animals.
5. (obsolete) A mess; trouble.

   • For your vows and oaths, Or I doubt mainly, I shall be i' the mash " too

6. (countable, MLE, slang) A gun.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:firearm

Derived terms

• bangers and mash
• instant mash
• mash tun
• mash vat
• monster mash

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mashen, maschen, meshen, from Old English *m?s?an, *m?s?an, from Proto-Germanic *maiskijan?. Cognate with German maischen. Compare also Middle Low German meskewert, m?schewert (“beerwort”).

Verb

mash (third-person singular simple present mashes, present participle mashing, simple past and past participle mashed)

1. (transitive) To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure

   We had fun mashing apples in a mill.

   The potatoes need to be mashed.

2. (transitive) In brewing, to convert (for example malt, or malt and meal) into the mash which makes wort.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To press down hard (on).

   to mash on a bicycle pedal

4. (transitive, Southern US, informal) To press. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. (transitive, Britain, chiefly Northern England) To prepare a cup of tea in a teapot; to brew (tea).
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 10

     He took the kettle off the fire and mashed the tea.

6. (intransitive, archaic) To act violently.

Derived terms

• mashing
• mashed potato, mashed potatoes
• mashup

Translations

Etymology 3

See mesh.

Noun

mash (plural mashes)

1. (obsolete) A mesh.

Etymology 4

Either by analogy with mash (“to press, to soften”), or more likely from Romani masha (“a fascinator, an enticer”), mashdva (“fascination, enticement”). Originally used in theater, and recorded in US in 1870s. Either originally used as mash, or a backformation from masher, from masha. Leland writes of the etymology:

It was introduced by the well-known gypsy family of actors, C., among whom Romany was habitually spoken. The word “masher” or “mash” means in that tongue to allure, delude, or entice. It was doubtless much aided in its popularity by its quasi-identity with the English word. But there can be no doubt as to the gypsy origin of “mash” as used on the stage. I am indebted for this information to the late well-known impresario [Albert Marshall] Palmer of New York, and I made a note of it years before the term had become at all popular.

Verb

mash (third-person singular simple present mashes, present participle mashing, simple past and past participle mashed)

1. to flirt, to make eyes, to make romantic advances

Noun

mash (plural mashes)

1. (obsolete) an infatuation, a crush, a fancy
2. (obsolete) a dandy, a masher
3. (obsolete) the object of one’s affections (either sex)

Derived terms

• mash note
• masher

Translations

References

Anagrams

• AMHS, HMAS, HSAM, Hams, MHAs, MSHA, Mahs, SAHM, Sahm, Sham, hams, sham

English

Etymology 1

Probably a variant of mash, or from a dialectal variant of Middle English mos (“mush, pulp, porridge”); compare Middle English appelmos (“applesauce”), from Old English m?s (“food, victuals, porridge, mush”), from Proto-West Germanic *m?s, from Proto-Germanic *m?s? (“porridge, food”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh?d- (“wet, fat, dripping”). Cognate with Scots moosh (“mush”), Dutch moes (“pulp, mush, porridge”), German Mus (“jam, puree, mush”), Swedish mos (“pulp, mash, mush”). See also moose.

Alternative forms

• moosh

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: m?sh, IPA^(key): /m??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /m??/
• ,
• Rhymes: -??
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

mush (countable and uncountable, plural mushes)

1. A somewhat liquid mess, often of food; a soft or semisolid substance.
2. (radio) A mixture of noise produced by the harmonics of continuous-wave stations.
3. (surfing) The foam of a breaker.
   • 2008, Bucky McMahon, Night Diver (page 80)

     And Rincon was all about surfing. Flash back thirty-odd years, to a skinny kid on a Styrofoam belly-board, pin-wheeling out into the mush of Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

4. (geology) A magmatic body containing a significant proportion of crystals suspended in the liquid phase or melt.

Translations

Verb

mush (third-person singular simple present mushes, present participle mushing, simple past and past participle mushed)

1. To squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else.

   He mushed the ingredients together.

Translations

Derived terms

• apple-mush
• mushy

See also

• mash
• moosh

Etymology 2

From Old High German muos and Goidelic mus (“a pap”) or muss (“a porridge”), or any thick preparation of fruit.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: m?sh, IPA^(key): /m??/
• ,
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

mush (countable and uncountable, plural mushes)

1. A food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk; porridge.
2. (rural US) Cornmeal cooked in water and served as a porridge or as a thick sidedish like grits or mashed potatoes.
   • 2007, Andrew F. Smith, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink

     However, they did make and sometimes even bake cornmeal mushes that could be either sweetened or fortified with fat.

Translations

Etymology 3

Believed to be a contraction of mush on, from Michif, in turn a corruption of French marchons! and marche!, the cry of the voyageurs and coureurs de bois to their dogs.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: m?sh, IPA^(key): /m??/, /m??/
• ,
• Rhymes: -??

Interjection

mush

1. A directive given (usually to dogs or a horse) to start moving, or to move faster.

Translations

Derived terms

• musher

Noun

mush (plural mushes)

1. A walk, especially across the snow with dogs.

Verb

mush (third-person singular simple present mushes, present participle mushing, simple past and past participle mushed)

1. (intransitive) To walk, especially across the snow with dogs.
2. (transitive) To drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across the snow.
   • 1910, Jack London, Burning Daylight, part 1 chapter 4:

     Together the two men loaded and lashed the sled. They warmed their hands for the last time, pulled on their mittens, and mushed the dogs over the bank and down to the river-trail.

Etymology 4

Simple contraction of mushroom.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: m?sh, IPA^(key): /m??/
• ,
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

mush (plural mushes)

1. (Quebec, slang) A magic mushroom.

Synonyms

• shroom (slang)

Translations

Etymology 5

From Angloromani mush (“man”), from Romani mursh, from Sanskrit ?????? (manu?ya, “human being, man”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: mo?osh, IPA^(key): /m??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

mush (plural mushes)

1. (Britain, slang, chiefly Southern England) A form of address, normally to a man.

   Synonyms: (UK) mate, (especially US) pal

2. (Britain, slang, chiefly Northern England, Australia) The face.

   Synonym: mug

Translations

References

• Take Our Word for It Issue 101, accessed on 2005-05-09

Etymology 6

Compare French moucheter (“to cut with small cuts”).

Verb

mush (third-person singular simple present mushes, present participle mushing, simple past and past participle mushed)

1. (transitive) To notch, cut, or indent (cloth, etc.) with a stamp.

Anagrams

• Hums, Shum, hums

Angloromani

Etymology

From Romani mur?, from Sanskrit ?????? (manu?ya, “human being, man”).

Noun

mush (plural mushes)

1. man

Descendants

• ? English: mush

References

• “mush” in The Manchester Romani Project, Angloromani Dictionary.