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Mash vs Mince - What's the difference?

mash | mince |

In uncountable terms the difference between mash and mince

is that mash is a mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state while mince is finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.

In transitive terms the difference between mash and mince

is that mash is to press down hard (on) while mince is to affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.

As an acronym MASH

is mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

mash

English

Etymology 1

See mesh

Noun

(es)
  • (obsolete) A mesh
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) mash, . See (l).

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.
  • In brewing, ground or bruised malt, or meal of rye, wheat, corn, or other grain (or a mixture of malt and meal) steeped and stirred in hot water for making the wort.
  • Mashed potatoes.
  • A mixture of meal or bran and water fed to animals.
  • (obsolete): A mess; trouble.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)
    Derived terms
    * mash tun * mash vat

    Verb

    (es)
  • To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; to bruise; to crush; as, to mash apples in a mill, or potatoes with a pestle. Specifically (Brewing), to convert, as malt, or malt and meal, into the mash which makes wort.
  • To press down hard (on).
  • to mash on a bicycle pedal
  • (transitive, southern US, informal) to press.
  • (UK) To prepare a cup of tea (in a teapot), alternative to brew; used mainly in Northern England
  • * 1913 ,
  • He took the kettle off the fire and mashed the tea.
    Derived terms
    * mashing * mashed potato, mashed potatoes * bangers and mash * mashup

    Etymology 3

    Either Mash Note] at World Wide Words[http://books.google.com/books?id=j41z0yeKbeIC&pg=PA195&dq=masher The City in Slang], by Irving L. Allen, [http://books.google.com/books?id=j41z0yeKbeIC&pg=PA195&dq=masher p. 195] by analogy withThe Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology,'' as cited at [http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/03/mash-notes.html The Grammarphobia Blog: Mash notes], March 16, 2007 . Originally used in theater,Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang and recorded in US in 1870s. Either originally used as mash, or a backformation from (masher), from (masha). Leland writes of the etymology:Preface to poem “The Masher”, in his ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=B2GmNo96450C Songs of the Sea and Lays of the Land], [http://books.google.com/books?id=B2GmNo96450C&printsec=frontcover
  • PPA243,M1 p. 243] ([http://www.archive.org/stream/songsofthesea00lelarich/songsofthesea00lelarich_djvu.txt full text)
  • : It was introduced by the well-known gypsy family of actors, C., among whom Romany was habitually spoken. The word “masher” or “mash” means in that tongue to allure, delude, or entice. It was doubtless much aided in its popularity by its quasi-identity with the English word. But there can be no doubt as to the gypsy origin of “mash” as used on the stage. I am indebted for this information to the late well-known impresario [Albert Marshall] Palmer of New York, and I made a note of it years before the term had become at all popular.

    Verb

  • to flirt, to make eyes, to make romantic advances
  • Noun

    (es)
  • (obsolete) an infatuation, a crush, a fancy
  • (obsolete) a dandy, a masher
  • (obsolete) the object of one’s affections (either sex)
  • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    References

    Anagrams

    * * * *

    mince

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Finely chopped meat.
  • Mince tastes really good fried in a pan with some chopped onion and tomato.
  • (uncountable) Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.
  • During Christmas time my dad loves to eat mince pies.
  • (countable) An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
  • * Truman Capote, Children on their Birthdays : (rfdate)
  • A wiry little girl in a starched, lemon-colored party dress, she sassed along with a grownup mince , one hand on her hip, the other supporting a spinsterish umbrella.
  • * John Fowles: (rfdate):
  • She was just the same; she had a light way of walking and she always wore flat heels so she didn't have that mince like most girls. She didn't think at all about the men when she moved. Like a bird.
  • * 2010 , Tom Zoellner, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World :
  • His skin was china pale, he walked with a slight mince , and his silver mustache was always trimmed sharp; it was his custom to send a bouquet of pink carnations to the wives of men with whom he dined.
  • (countable) An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
  • * George Bernard Shaw: (rfdate)
  • A very moderate degree of accomplishment in this direction would make an end of stage smart speech, which, like the got-up Oxford mince and drawl of a foolish curate, is the mark of a snob.
  • * 1928 , R. M. Pope, in The Education Outlook , volume 80, page 285:
  • And, further, who has not heard what someone has christened the "Oxford" mince , where every consonant is mispronounced and every vowel gets a wrong value?
  • * 2008 , Opie Read, The Colossus , page 95:
  • [...] a smiling man, portly and impressive, coming toward them with a dignified mince in his walk.

    Quotations

    * 1849 , Herman Melville, Mardi, and a Voyage Thither : *: Not, — let me hurry to say, — that I put hand in tar bucket with a squeamish air, or ascended the rigging with a Chesterfieldian mince .

    Verb

    (minc)
  • To make less; make small.
  • To lessen; diminish; to diminish in speaking; speak of lightly or slightingly; minimise.
  • (rare) To effect mincingly.
  • (cooking) To cut into very small pieces; to chop fine.
  • Butchers often use machines to mince meat.
  • To suppress or weaken the force of; to extenuate; to palliate; to tell by degrees, instead of directly and frankly; to clip, as words or expressions; to utter half and keep back half of.
  • I know no ways to mince it in love, but directly to say — "I love you."
    To mince one's words
    a minced oath
  • * Dryden
  • Siren, now mince the sin, / And mollify damnation with a phrase.
  • To affect; to pronounce affectedly or with an accent.
  • * 1869 , Alexander J. Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, with special reference to Shakespeare and Chaucer , part 1, page 194:
  • In some districts of England ll'' is sounded like ''w'', thus ''bowd'' (booud) for BOLD, ''bw'' (buu) for BULL, ''caw (kau) for CALL. But this pronunciation is merely a provincialism, and not to be imitated unless you wish to mince like these blunderers.
  • * 1905 , George Henderson, The Gaelic Dialects, IV'', in the ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie , published by Kuno Meyer and L. Chr. Stern, volume 5, page 98:
  • One may hear some speakers in Oxford mince brother'' into ''brover'' (brëvë); ''Bath'' into ''Baf''; ''both'' into ''bof .
  • * 1915 , Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark :
  • "The preacher said it was sympathetic," she minced the word, remembering Mr. Larsen's manner.
  • To walk with short steps; to walk in a prim, affected manner.
  • * The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, mincing as they go. -- III. 16.
  • * I'll turn two mincing steps into a manly stride.
  • *
  • At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.
  • To act or talk with affected nicety; to affect delicacy in manner.
  • I love going to gay bars and seeing drag queens mince around on stage.
  • (archaic) To diminish the force of.
  • Usage notes

    Current usage in the sense of "weaken the force of" is limited to the phrase "mince words"; e.g., "I won't mince words with you".

    Derived terms

    * mincemeat * mince pie * mince words * minsitive

    References

    * ----