Consider a free theory with one real scalar field: $$ \mathcal{L}:=-\frac{1}{2}\partial _\mu \phi \partial ^\mu \phi -\frac{1}{2}m^2\phi ^2. $$ We write this positive coefficient in front of $\phi ^2$ as $\frac{1}{2}m^2$, and then start calling $m$ the mass (of who knows what at this point) and even interpret it as such. But pretend for a moment that you've never seen any sort of field theory before: if someone were to just write this Lagrangian down, it's not immediately apparent why this should be the mass of anything.
So then, first of all, what is it precisely that we mean when we say the word "mass", and how is our constant related to this physical notion in a way that justifies the interpretation of $m$ as mass?
If it helps to clarify, this is how I think about it. There are two notions of mass involved: the mathematical one that is part of our model, and the physical one which we are trying to model. The physical mass needs to be defined by an idealized thought experiment, and then, if our model is to be any good, we should be able to come up with a 'proof' that our mathematical definition agrees with the physical one.
(Of course, none of this at all has anything to do with this particular field theory; it was just the simplest Lagrangian to write down.)
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