Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MASS, n.¹ [Fr. masse, a mass, a heap, a mace, or club; Port. maça, dough, and a mace; Sp. masa, dough, mortar, a mass, and maza, a club, a mace; mazo, a mallet; It. massa, a heap, and mazza, a maze; G. masse; L. massa, a mass. These words seem to belong to the root of the Greek μασσω, to beat or pound, the root of which is μαγ; hence the connection between mass, and mace, a club. If any of these words are of a different origin, they may belong to the root of mix.]

1. A lump; a body of matter concreted, collected or formed into a lump; applied to any solid body; as, a mass of iron or lead; a mass of flesh; a mass of ice; a mass of dough.
2. A collective body of fluid matter. The ocean is a mass of water.
3. A heap; as, a mass of earth.
4. A great quantity collected; as, a mass of treasure.
5. Bulk; magnitude. This army of such mass and charge. Shak.
6. An assemblage; a collection of particulars blended, confused or indistinct; as, a mass of colors. Addison. They lose their forms, and make a mass / Confused and black, if brought too near. Prior.
7. Gross body of things considered collectively; the body; the bulk; as, the mass of people in a nation. A small portion of morbid matter may infect the whole mass of fluids in the body. Comets have power over the mass of things. Bacon.