Newsgroups: sci.lang,sci.lang.translation
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!wang!news
From: bruck@actcom.co.il (Uri Bruck)
Subject: Q:mensa -cafeteria? possible etymology
Organization: ACTCOM - Internet Services in Israel
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 22:00:44 GMT
Message-ID: <DA4t59.HFC@actcom.co.il>
Sender: news@wang.com
Lines: 43
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:40095 sci.lang.translation:2261


I recently stumbled something curious.
Apparently I had used the word 'mensa' in the sense of a university
cafeteria, which is the sense in which it is used in Israel.
Ms. Virginia Krenn e-mailed me to inquire why I used the word that way,
because she was unfamiliar with the usage.
I wonder knows of other places where the word is used in a similar sense.
Why is the mensa organizaition called 'mensa' 
(if you are thinking of replying:'because that is it's name' - I've
read Lewis Carrol too)

Anyway, for a good start Ms. Krenn looked it up and this is what her
dictionary supplied: 
(My dictionary doesn't give the constellation, it does mention an additional
definition- top of an altar)

Mensa -- A southern constellation between Hydrus and Volans -- from Latin 
mensa -- (table) 

mesa -- A flat-topped elevation with one or more clifflike sides, common 
in the southwestern United States -- Spanish, from Old Spanish, from 
Latin -- (table)

mess (noun) 
Meaning # 4 -- An amount of food for a meal, course, or dish: "at their 
               savory dinner set / Of herbs, and other country messes" 
               (Milton)
Meaning # 7 -- An amount or number acquired, usually of something 
               edible: a mess of fish.
Meaning # 8.a -- A group of persons, usually in the military, who 
                 regularly eat meals together
Meaning # 8.b -- The place where such meals are served
Meaning # 8.c -- A meal eaten there
mess (verb intransitive)
Meaning # 3 -- To take a meal in a military mess
-- from Middle English mes, course of a meal, dish of food, group of 
messmates, from Old French, from Latin missus, "placement," course of a 
meal, from mittere (past participle missus), to send, place, put
from smeit- -- to let go, send off, throw; (Mass, mess, message,
missile, mission, missive, mittimus, admit, commit, compromise, demit,
dismiss, emit, intermit, intromit, omit, permit, premise, pretermit,
promise, remit, submit, surmise, transmit)

