masseuse

The word 'masseuse' is a direct borrowing from French, entering English in the late 19th century. Its first element, 'mass-', originates from the French verb 'masser', meaning to massage. This verb is believed to have been adopted into French from the Arabic 'masḥa', which carries the sense of touching or stroking gently. The second element, '-euse', is a distinctly French feminine suffix used to denote a female practitioner of a trade or art, creating a word that literally means "a female who performs massage." This formation distinguishes it from the masculine form 'masseur', following the grammatical gender conventions of its source language.

Structure: mass (to handle, touch) + euse (female agent suffix) 'mass' from French 'masser' (to massage), itself from Arabic 'masḥa' (to stroke, touch). 'euse' is a French feminine agent noun suffix, from Latin '-issa', from Greek '-ισσα' (-issa).