Mace
/meɪs/noun
A heavy club used as a weapon, or the aromatic outer covering of the nutmeg seed.
Did you know?The weapon sense and the spice sense are unrelated: the club comes through Old French from Latin, while the spice name arrived separately from a Malayalam word for the nutmeg’s outer aril.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*mag-
“To knead, work, or shape by hand”
Latin
Latin
mattĕa
“A club or cudgel”
Old French
Old French
mace
“A club or staff used as a weapon”
Middle English
English
mace
“A heavy club or ceremonial staff”
Modern English
English
mace
“A heavy club; also the aromatic covering of nutmeg”