mash [OE] Brewing provides the earliest context of mash. This mash is a mixture of ground malt and hot water which is left to stand to form the infusion called ‘wort’. The first example of mash meaning ‘mashed potatoes’ is from 1904, by the British MP and novelist A. E. W. Mason: ‘I … go into a public-house … and have a sausage and mash and a pot of beer.’ The word may ultimately be related to mix. This is from Latin mixtus which became mixte in Old French. This was heard by English speakers as ‘mixed’ and a new verb, to mix, was formed. As an abbreviation for ‘mobile army surgical hospital’, MASH goes back to 1950.