Last week, Mosaic’s language columnist, Philologos, took us on a delightful journey into the origins of the word grogger—denoting a noisemaker used on Purim. Now, René Bloch investigates the etymology of another Purim-related word: the Hebrew masekhah, which means “mask.” When and how did this word come to replace the older partsuf, and is it related to the English word and its French, German, and other equivalents? Bloch writes:

Eliezer Ben Yehudah (1858–1922) in his classic dictionary of Hebrew, under the entry for masekhah as “covering,” writes: “Maske; masque; mask. They have begun to use this term in modern times with the meaning of face-hiding, ‘Maske, masque, mask.’”

Masekhah rings suspiciously similar to the English mask, German Maske (with its Yiddish equivalent maske), French “masque” etc., and it seems likely that the biblical term masekhah entered Modern Hebrew with this new meaning, replacing partsuf, because it sounds like the familiar non-Hebrew word—and because there was a similar-sounding biblical word at hand: masekhah, [meaning something cast out of gold].

Notably, the origin of the non-Hebrew word is itself a mystery. . . . No one knows for sure the origins of the word “mask.” Somehow, it continues to escape, playing hide and seek with us, and laughing at all those philologists trying to catch it.

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.