Editing Mess (section)

{{Short description|Place where military personnel eat and socialize}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:HMCSKamsackStokersMessFeb1943.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Stand easy in the stoker's mess of the corvette {{HMCS|Kamsack|K171|6}}, 1943]]
The '''mess''' (also called a '''mess deck''' aboard ships) is a designated area where [[military personnel]] socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the officers' mess, the [[chief petty officer]] mess, and the enlisted mess. In some civilian societies this military usage has been extended to the eating arrangements of other disciplined services such as fire fighting and police forces.

The root of ''mess'' is the [[Old French]] ''mes'', "portion of food" (cf. modern [[French language|French]] ''mets''), drawn from the [[Latin]] verb ''mittere'', meaning "to send" and "to put" (cf. modern French ''mettre''), the original sense being "a course of a meal put on the table"; cfr. also the modern Italian ''portata'' with the same meaning, past participle of ''portare'', ''to bring''. This sense of ''mess'', which appeared in [[English language|English]] in the 13th century, was often used for cooked or liquid dishes in particular, as in the "[[mess of pottage]]" (porridge or soup) or [[Eton mess]].