An early borrowing from Ancient Greek μᾶζα (mâza, “bread”), possibly via Etruscan. It is uncertain whether the long /aː/ was carried over. Early Latin regularly rendered the Greek sound represented by ⟨ζ⟩ as /ss/; compare patrissō. In Imperial times, when Greek borrowings were entering Latin with ⟨z⟩, the old massa remained, never replaced by *māza.