maskyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[mask 词源字典]
mask: [16] Mask may be of Arabic origin. The word maskharah ‘buffoon’ has been postulated as the source of Italian maschera, from which, via French masque, English got mask. In modern English, the word is largely restricted to ‘face covering’, but a range of other senses developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, including ‘masked ball’ and ‘allegorical dramatic entertainment’, which are now lumped together under the French spelling masque. The derivative masquerade [16] was borrowed from French mascarade, with the spelling of masque later grafted on to it.
=> masque, masquerade[mask etymology, mask origin, 英语词源]
masque (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"masquerade, masked ball," 1510s, from Middle French masque; see mask (n.), with which it was originally identical. It developed a special sense of "amateur theatrical performance" (1560s) in Elizabethan times, when such entertainments (originally performed in masks) were popular among the nobility.