MAZE

maze, a network of winding paths, a labyrinth (q.v.). the word means properly a state of confusion or wonder, and is probably of scandinavian origin; cf. norw. _mas_, exhausting labour, also chatter, _masa_, to be busy, also to worry, annoy; swed. _masa_, to lounge, move slowly and lazily, to dream, muse. skeat (_etym._ dict.) takes the original sense to be probably "to be lost in thought," "to dream," and connects with the root _ma-man_-, to think, cf. "mind," "man," &c. the word "maze" represents the addition of an intensive suffix.