- message
- c.1300, "communication transmitted via a messenger," from O.Fr. message, from M.L. missaticum, from L. missus, pp. of mittere "to send." The L. word is glossed in O.E. by ærende. Specific religious sense of "divinely inspired communication via a prophet" (1546) let to transf. sense of "the broad meaning (of something)," first attested 1828. To get the message "understand" is from 1964.