Then, the meaning changed to food for worms. Then, it changed again, meaning a quantity of milk given by a cow at one milking. It also meant a dish, usually of milk or fruit.

Then in the United States, it meant a haul of fish and later was short for mess-beef, where an animal was cut according to cuts of beef. Mess originally meant “course of a meal”. Then it meant a quantity of something, usually food. Then it meant a prepared food, such as milk, porridge, broth or boiled vegetables. Then it meant food for an animal.

Then it meant excrement: “A lovely stinking little baby who still made messes in its bed”. “A dog made a mess in the corner.”

It’s meaning as a group of persons eating together – normally four persons eating from the same dish, became widely used by the army and navy. They would have a mess hall where groups could eat and, for special functions, would wear a mess jacket or a mess kit. “Mess, the particular company of the officers of a ship, who sat, drank and associated together.” The meaning now relates to any group of people who share a meal. 

It changed when it moved into English to make mess of anything, food related. It developed in the 19th century to mean a mess of anything. It still means making a mess, but we have almost eliminated the food connection.

lauriebarber.com;lbword@midcoast.com.au.