Earth & SkyGreek → English
Magma
/ˈmæɡmə/noun
Molten rock held beneath the earth's crust.
The Greek roots
μάγμα
mágma
kneaded mass, thick paste
Literally: “kneaded paste”
Follow a root:μάγμα1 word
The story of the word
In Greek a mágma was the thick residue left after pressing an ointment, from mássein, to knead dough. Apothecaries used the word in English for centuries in that sense, meaning dregs or a paste, and geologists only took it for liquid rock in the nineteenth century. They kept a distinction worth knowing: the same material is magma below ground and lava once it reaches air. Whether mássein also lies behind massage is disputed, since Arabic mass, to touch, has an equal claim.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
In a sentence
The magma chamber under the caldera had been refilling for a decade before anyone noticed.