mask
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /mɑːsk/
ipa: /mask/
ipa: /mæsk/
homophone: Marske
homophone: masque
homophone: masc stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
rhymes: -æsk
rhymes: -ɑːsk
Forms: form: masks
form: masking
form: masked
form: masked
form: masque
Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French masque (“a covering to hide or protect the face”), from Italian maschera (“mask, disguise”), from (a byform of, see it for more) Medieval Latin masca, mascha, a borrowing of Proto-West Germanic *maskā from which English mesh is regularly inherited.
Replaced Old English grīma (“mask”), whence grime, and displaced non-native Middle English viser (“visor, mask”) borrowed from Old French viser, visier.
Compare also Hebrew מַסֵּכָה (masseiḥa).
Senses: examples: text: They must all be masked and vizarded
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:
glosses: To cover (the face or something else), in order to conceal the identity or protect against injury; to cover with a mask or visor.
glosses: To disguise as something else.
examples: text: Masking the business from the common eye
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: The opponent must not be able to recognize when we inhale and when we exhale. We achieve this by breathing with the diaphragm and we do not raise the shoulders while breathing. In particular we must mask when we are out of breath.
ref: 1998, Rudolf Jakhel, Modern Sports Karate: Basics of Techniques and Tactics, Meyer & Meyer Sport, →ISBN:
text: Many autistic people have language and cognitive skills; [and] they mask their autism, cover up social discomfort, and work hard to be someone they are not, so people often see them as “fitting in” just fine.
ref: 2020, Lisa Morgan, Mary Donahue, Living with PTSD on the Autism Spectrum: Insightful Analysis with Practical Applications, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 118:
glosses: To conceal from view or knowledge; to cover; to hide.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To conceal; also, to intervene in the line of.
examples: text: to mask a body of troops or a fortess by a superior force, while some hostile evolution is being carried out
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To cover or keep in check.
examples: text: Come Pentecost as quickly as it will,
Some five and twenty years, and then we mask’d.
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
text: noble Gentilmen / who daunced & masked wt thes fayer ladyes & gentillwomen
ref: 1641, George Cavendish, Thomas Wolsey, Late Cardinall, his Lyffe and Deathe:
glosses: To take part as a masker in a masquerade.
examples: text: Dr. Shelita Dattani, director of professional affairs at the Canadian Pharmacists Association, says […]. “The efforts that we’re taking to reduce the spread of COVID are working … people are masking and distancing and staying away from each other and using hand hygiene, so I think all of these efforts combined are contributing to lower rates.”
ref: 2020 December 30, Jaren Kerr, “Flu almost non-existent this year as coronavirus cases rise across Canada”, in The Globe and Mail:
glosses: To wear a mask.
examples: text: Ioue sometime maſked in a ſhepheards weede,
And by thoſe ſteps that he hath ſcal’d the heauens,
May we become immortall like the Gods.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
glosses: To disguise oneself, to be disguised in any way.
examples: text: Masking is exhausting and some autistics require copious amounts of time afterwards to recover from hiding who they are and pretending to be someone they aren't. Even when autistics mask they don't always pass fully as an NT person.
ref: 2018, Sally Cat, PDA by PDAers: From Anxiety to Avoidance and Masking to Meltdowns, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 86:
text: Masking can leave a person with less energy to handle other aspects of their day, from performing basic housework to processing thoughts and feelings.
ref: 2020, Sarah Kurchak, I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, unnumbered page:
text: So, masking seems to be a very poor explanation for the difference in gender diagnosis of autism. In particular, masking requires theory of mind. How can autistic people successfully mask if they struggle with this ability?
ref: 2021, Yenn Purkis, Wenn B. Lawson, The Autistic Trans Guide to Life, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 132:
text: Some group members describe masking during therapy in order to seem more likeable to the therapist, or because they felt it necessary in order to be seen as engaging with the support.
ref: 2021, Felicity Sedgewick, Laura Hull, Helen Ellis, Autism and Masking: How and Why People Do It, and the Impact It Can Have, page 220:
text: Kayleigh, who was finally diagnosed at 18, felt that she masked a lot growing up because she "always felt different and was bullied if [she] showed it both at home and in school".
ref: 2022, Hannah Louise Belcher, Taking Off the Mask: Practical Exercises to Help Understand and Minimise the Effects of Autistic Camouflaging, page 80:
glosses: To conceal or disguise one's autism; to learn, practice, and perform certain behaviors and suppress others in order to appear more neurotypical.
glosses: To cover or shield a part of a design or picture in order to prevent reproduction or to safeguard the surface from the colors used when working with an air brush or painting.
examples: text: That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero. This is because ANDing anything with a zero produces a zero, while ANDing any bit with a 1 leaves the bit unchanged[…]
ref: 1993, Richard E. Haskell, Introduction to computer engineering, page 287:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To set or unset (certain bits, or binary digits, within a value) by means of a bitmask.
examples: text: Some hardware interrupts can be masked, or disabled; that is, the CPU is told to ignore them.
ref: 1998, Rick Grehan, Robert Moote, Ingo Cyliax, Real-Time Programming: A Guide to 32-bit Embedded Development, page 199:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To disable (an interrupt, etc.) by setting or unsetting the associated bit.
Derived terms: maskable
masked
mask up
unmask
Related terms: mascara