"current fashion, prevailing style," 1640s, from French mode "manner, fashion, style" (15c.), a specialized use of the French word that also yielded mode (n.1).
c. 1400, produccioun, "a coming into being," from Old French production "production, exhibition" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin productionem (nominative productio) "a prolonging, lengthening," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin producere "bring forth" (see produce (v.)). Meaning "that which is produced" is mid-15c. Colloquial sense of "fuss, commotion" is from 1941, transferred from the meaning "theatrical performance" (1894).
"manner;" late 14c., "melodies, strains of music" (a sense now obsolete; see musical senses below), from Old French mode and directly from Latin modus "measure, extent, quantity; proper measure, rhythm, song; a way, manner, fashion, style" (in Late Latin also "mood" in grammar and logic), from PIE root *med- "take appropriate measures."
Meaning "manner of acting or doing, was in which a thing is done" is by 1660s. Sense of "inflectional category in conjugation" is mid-15c. In music, 1670s as "method of dividing the intervals of the octave for melodic purposes" in reference to ancient Greek music; by 1721 in reference to modern music.
also over-production, "excessive production, production of commodities in excess of normal demand," 1822, from over- + production.
"to manufacture in large quantities by standardized process," 1921, probably a back-formation from mass production (1919), from mass (n.1) + production (v.). Related: Mass-produced; mass-producing.
