a network of winding paths, a labyrinth. 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.