Word origins | Maske

Mavi Boncuk |

Maske : from IT masca 1. cadı, 2. maske  mask EN[1] 3. maskot[3]

Oldest source: maska [ Meninski, Thesaurus (1680) ]

(Fr. masque [mask]) [Sondaki “e” bir benzeşme ile eklenmiş olmalıdır]
1. Tanınmamak için yüze geçirilen, karton, plastik vb. şeylerden yapılan yüz kalıbı veya yüz örtüsü: “Haydut maskesi.” “Yüzünde maske vardı, tanıyamadım.” Yüzümü maske ile örttüler (Peyâmi Safâ). Kırmızı bezden maşlahlar yapmış, maskeler almıştı (Hâlit Z. Uşaklıgil).
2. Korunmak maksadıyle yüze geçirilen yüzlük: “Gaz maskesi.” “Arıcı maskesi.”
3. Güzelleştirmek veya güzelliğini korumak amacıyle yüze, boyuna sürülen ve yüzü kaplayan krem, mâcun vb.
4. mec. Gerçeği görmeye, anlamaya engel olan, gerçeği gizleyen aldatıcı görünüş: Bir kelime ile düşman bu maârife “ilericilik” maskesi altında neyi telkin ederse onu yapıyor (Ergun Göze).
5. mec. Bir kimsenin gerçek niyet ve duygularını gizlemek için takındığı sahte tavır.
ѻ Maske gibi: (Yüz için) Duygularını belli etmeyen, cansız ve donuk. Maskesi düşmek: Asıl amacı anlaşılmak, gerçek yüzü ortaya çıkmak. Maskesini atmak (indirmek, kaldırmak): Asıl niyet ve amacını ortaya koymak.

See also: The Mask & the Face: The Perception of Physiognomic Likeness in Life and in Art’ by E.H. Gombrich in Art, Perception & Reality[*]

Gombrich aims to inform us about the sensitivity of our physiognomic perception to small changes. Physiognomic perception is quite simply our perception of faces and facial expression. He discusses ideas of representation in art, mainly focusing on caricature, and the depicting of changing facial expressions. Depicting facial expression in illustration is very important in provoking empathy from the viewer. Gombrich defends his theory that empathy is an exploration of recognition of physiognomic resemblances.

[*] Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, published in 1960, is one of the most influential books written during the twentieth century on the subject of art. Following the publication in 1950 of his incredibly popular book, The Story of Art, Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich consented to give the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1956. Those lectures became the book Art and Illusion. Critics generally agree that this volume, among Gombrich's myriad publications, is his most far-reaching and influential work. Gombrich continued to advocate many of the ideas put forth in this book throughout his life. Indeed, he not only revised the text and wrote a new preface for the second edition of the book published in 1961, he also wrote a new preface for the "Millennium Edition" published in 2000, in his ninety-first year.

In Art and Illusion, Gombrich poses this essential question: "Why is it that different ages and different nations have represented the visible world in such different ways?" Throughout the pages of the book, Gombrich attempts to address this question using science, psychology, and philosophy to help formulate his answer. At the heart of his theory is the notion of "schemata," that is, the idea that the artist "begins not with his visual impression but with his idea or concept" and that the artist adjusts this idea to fit, as well as it can, the object, landscape, or person before him or her. Gombrich calls this theory "making and matching."

While art critics and historians have developed new ideas about representation since the first publication of Art and Illusion, Gombrich and his ideas continue to be a mighty force. Thus, serious students of art and art history find Art and Illusion an important and necessary part of their education.

[1] mask (n.) 1530s, "a cover for the face (with openings for the eyes and mouth), a false face," from Middle French masque "covering to hide or guard the face" (16c.), from Italian maschera, from Medieval Latin masca "mask, specter, nightmare," a word of uncertain origin.

It is perhaps from Arabic maskharah "buffoon, mockery," from sakhira "be mocked, ridiculed." Or it may come via Provençal mascarar, Catalan mascarar, Old French mascurer "to black (the face)," which is perhaps from a Germanic source akin to English mesh (q.v.). But it maybe a Provençal word originally: Compare Occitan mascara "to blacken, darken," derived from mask- "black," which is held to be from a pre-Indo-European language, and Old Occitan masco "witch," surviving in dialects; in Beziers it means "dark cloud before the rain comes." [See Walther von Wartburg, "Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch: Eine Darstellung galloromanischen sprachschatzes"].

Figurative meaning "anything used or practiced for disguise or concealment" is by 1570s.

Masque: a form of amateur dramatic entertainment, popular among the nobility in 16th- and 17th-century England, which consisted of dancing and acting performed by masked players.

mascara (n.) "cosmetic for coloring eyebrows and eyelashes," originally used by actors, 1883, mascaro (modern form from 1922), from Spanish mascara "a stain; a mask," from same source as Italian maschera "mask" (see mask (v.)).

masquerade (n.) 1590s, "assembly of persons wearing masks and usually other disguises," from French mascarade or Spanish mascarada "masked party or dance," from Italian mascarata "a ball at which masks are worn," variant of mascherata "masquerade," from maschera (see mask (n.)).

Extended sense of "disguise in general, concealment or apparent change of identity by any means" is from 1660s; figurative sense of "false outward show" is from 1670s.

mummer (n.) "one who performs in a mumming, actor in a dumb show," early 15c., probably a fusion of Old French momeur "mummer" (from Old French momer "mask oneself," from momon "mask") and Middle English mommen "to mutter, be silent," which is the source of mum (interjection). "[S]pecifically, in England, one of a company of persons who go from house to house at Christmas performing a kind of play, the subject being generally St. George and the Dragon, with sundry whimsical adjuncts" [Century Dictionary].

[3] mascot (n.) "a talisman, charm, thing supposed to bring good luck to its possessor," also "person whose presence is supposed to be a cause of good fortune," 1881, from provincial French mascotte "sorcerer's charm, 'faerie friend,' good luck piece" (19c.), of uncertain origin, perhaps from or related to Provençal mascoto "sorcery, fetish" (a Narbonnese manuscript of 1233 has mascotto "procuress, enchantment, bewitchment in gambling"), from masco "witch," from Old Provençal masca, itself of unknown origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin masca "mask, specter, nightmare" (see mask (n.)).

Popularized by French composer Edmond Audran's 1880 comic operetta "La Mascotte," about a household "fairy" who gives luck to an Italian peasant, which was performed in a toned-down translation in England from fall 1881. In reference to animals (later costumed characters) representing sports teams, by 1889.

For the edification of readers not versed in baseball lore it should be stated that the mascot has become quite an important institution among the professional teams of America. He may be a boy possessed of some special attainment or physical peculiarity, or he may be a bull-pup with a prominent patch over his left eye. It matters not whether a mascot be brute or human, so long as his presence upon the players' bench insures a victory--in the minds of the players--to the team with which he has cast his fortunes and in whose favor he exercises the influence he is supposed to have with Dame Fortune. [Harry Clay Palmer, ed., "Athletic Sports in America, England, and Australia," New York, 1889]