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massage

UK/ˈmæsɑː(d)ʒ/US/məˈsɑ(d)ʒ/
nounB22 meaningsVery common — you will meet it every day · #2,326 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: massages, massaging, massaged

A massage is rubbing the body to ease it. A back massage, book a massage, sports massage.

The evidence is best for short-term relief of pain and tension rather than for the larger claims sometimes made. To massage figures means to adjust them dishonestly while stopping short of inventing them, which is a nicely exact use. Note that the French word probably came from an Arabic verb meaning to touch.

IQP · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of massage

  1. 1nounmassageRubbing the body to ease it.B2

    “After the marathon, she booked a massage for her aching legs.”

  2. 2verbadjustTo adjust figures dishonestly.C1

    “The manager massaged the sales figures to make the year look better.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

massage is a treatment.

Where it comes from

French massage comes from masser, probably from an Arabic verb meaning to touch or feel.

  1. French

    massage

  2. English, today

    massage

Built from

  • masser · French — to massage

Borrowed from French massage. From French massage, from masser (“to massage”) (borrowed around the end of the 18th century from Arabic مَسَّ (“feel, touch”), or from Portuguese amassar) + -age. Cognate to German massieren.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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massage in the wild

  • The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain.

    Massage

  • When the massage is of a partner's genitals (manual sex), the act is usually referred to as a handjob for penises and fingering for vulvas.

    Erotic massage

  • Erotic massage is sometimes used as part of sex, either as foreplay, the final sex act, or as part of sex therapy.

    Erotic massage

  • A massage parlor (American English), or massage parlour (Canadian/British English), or massage salon is a place where massage services are provided.

    Massage parlor

  • UNESCO added traditional Thai massage to its Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in December 2019.

    Traditional Thai massage

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • scalp massage