message [ME] The root of message is missus, the past participle of Latin mittere ‘to send’ that is the source of *Mass and *missile as well as of messenger [ME] and demise [LME], originally the transfer of possessions by will. The phrase to shoot (or kill) the messenger, ‘to treat the bearer of bad news as if they were personally to blame for it’, is recorded only from the 1960s, but breaking bad news has always been a thankless task. The idea occurs at least twice in Shakespeare and the ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles expressed it as ‘No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.’