2006-07-29 01:10:18 · 9 answers · asked by tramblywarner 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
mess
c.1300, "food for one meal, pottage," from O.Fr. mes "portion of food, course at dinner," from L.L. missus "course at dinner," lit. "placing, putting (on a table, etc.)," from mittere "to put, place," from L. mittere "to send, let go" (see mission). Sense of "mixed food" led to contemptuous use for "jumble, mixed mass" (1828), and figurative sense of "state of confusion" (1834), as well as "condition of untidiness" (1851). Meaning "communal eating place"(esp. a military one) is first attested 1536, from earlier sense of "company of persons eating together" (c.1420), originally a group of four. Messy "untidy" is attested from 1843. To mess with "interfere, get involved" is from 1903; mess up "make a mistake, get in trouble" is from 1933, both orig. Amer.Eng. colloquial.
2006-07-29 02:59:10 · answer #1 · answered by MURP 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
A mess is just a military name for accomadation and/or dinning hall or bar its all the sam thing really and the officers mess is where the officers stay eat and get drunk the military also have sgt's mess' which also has accomadation and a bar but the junior ranks mess is only a dinning hall and they have to drink in the naafi (which officers and sgt's aren't allowed in without inivte)
and sleep in barrack blocks.
2006-07-29 08:22:40 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because that is what they do - create a mess - see Iraq. LOL
A mess is the place where military personnel socialise, eat and (in some cases) live. The military origins of many modern fire fighting terms extend to the use of the term mess for a fire station's dining hall.
Got this from wikipedia....more detailed information to be had.
2006-07-29 08:18:06 · answer #3 · answered by Foxey 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's ultimately from Latin _missum_ 'sent', and originally meant a portion or serving of food. This acquired new meanings in two directions: in Middle English it came to mean a group of people dining together, and in particular (from the 1500s) a group of army or navy personnel who eat together. The predominant modern meaning of "disorder, jumble" is much more recent (early 1800s), and comes from an earlier sense of a mess being a kind of mixed food.
2006-07-29 09:54:10 · answer #4 · answered by Zogboots 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because only the officers can use it, it's just where they eat, drink and congregate. for everyone else you'd call it the mess (hall)
2006-07-29 08:23:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a naval term, I think, that means the dining area. "Mess" is an old fashioned word for a type of stew, I believe.
2006-07-29 08:17:31 · answer #6 · answered by True Blue Brit 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
coz all the officers go there to drink and get messed up..
2006-07-29 08:14:17 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Officers Mast - its a quart-martial - you go up in front of officers in charge to see if your going to get in big trouble or little trouble.
2006-07-29 08:13:22 · answer #8 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because for other soldiers its a case of do as i say not as i do!!
2006-07-29 08:15:42 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋