مزه

See also: مزہ, مرة, مژه, and مزة

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Persian مزه (maze).

Noun

مزه • (meze)

1. pleasant taste, flavour, smack or relish

   Synonyms: چاشنی (çeşni), ذوق (zevk), طات (tat), لذت (lezzet), نمك (nemek)

2. any good-flavoured thing eaten to increase the appetite
3. (figuratively) pleasantry, jocose saying or remark

Descendants

• Turkish: meze
• → Arabic: مَزَّة (mazza)
• → Armenian: մեզե (meze), մա̈զա̈ (mäzä)
• → Albanian: meze
• → Aromanian: mize
• → Bulgarian: мезе́ (mezé)
• → Greek: μεζές (mezés)
  • → English: meze
• → Macedonian: мезе (meze)
• → Romanian: meze
• → Serbo-Croatian: mèze / мѐзе

Further reading

• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “meze1”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 3191
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “مزه”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[1], Constantinople: Mihran, page 1156
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Gustus”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎^[2], Vienna, column 677
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “مزه”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎^[3], Vienna, column 4602
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “meze”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “مزه”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[4], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1826

Persian

Etymology

From Middle Persian [script needed] (myck', m(y)ck' /⁠mizag⁠/, “taste”), a derivative of Proto-Iranian *mak- (“to suck”), which is perhaps a semantic extension of Proto-Iranian *mak- (“to wet, moisten”) reinforced by sound-symbolism, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂k- (“to moisten”). In this case, cognate with Proto-Slavic *močìti (“to wet”); see there for more cognates. For a semantic parallel between "consuming" and "wettening", compare Lithuanian válgyti (“to eat”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ma.za], [maz.za]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [mä.zä], [mäz.zä]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [mä.zä], [mäz.zä]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [mä.zä], [mäz.zä]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [mä.zä], [mäz.zä]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [mæ.ze], [mæz.ze]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [mä.zä], [mäz.zä]

Readings
Classical reading?	maza, mazza
Dari reading?	maza, mazza
Iranian reading?	maza, mazze
Tajik reading?	maza, mazza

Noun

Dari	مزه
Iranian Persian
Tajik	маза, мазза

مزه • (maze) (plural مزه‌ها (maze-hâ))

1. taste, flavour, smack, relish

   .مزه‌ی این سیب ترش است

   maze-ye in sib torš ast.

   This apple tastes sour.

   (literally, “The flavor of this apple is sour”)

2. joy, pleasure
3. a snack; a morsel taken after drinking liquor.

Synonyms

• طعم (ta'm)
• خوا (xovâ)
• چشیدن (čašidan)

Derived terms

• خوش‌مزه (xoš-maze)
• بدمزه (bad-maze)
• مزه‌دار (maze-dâr)
• بی‌مزه (bê-maze)
• بامزه (bâ-maze)
• مزه دادن (maze dâdan)
• مزه کردن (maze kardan)
• مزه دهن (maze-ye dahan)

Descendants

• → Assamese: মজা (moza)
• → Azerbaijani: məzə
• → Bengali: মজা (moja)
• → Gujarati: મજા (majā)
• → Hindustani:

  Hindi: मज़ा (mazā)

  Urdu: مزہ (maza)

• → Kazakh: маза (maza)
• → Marathi: मजा (majā)
• → Middle Armenian: մազայ (mazay)
• → Middle Georgian: მაზა (maza)
• → Ottoman Turkish: مزه (meze)
  • Turkish: meze
  • → Arabic: مَزَّة (mazza)
  • → Albanian: meze
  • → Aromanian: mize
  • → Bulgarian: мезе́ (mezé)
  • → Greek: μεζές (mezés)
    • → English: meze
  • → Macedonian: мезе (meze)
  • → Romanian: meze
  • → Serbo-Croatian: mèze / мѐзе
• → Punjabi: ਮਜਾ (majā)