mete

Forms

mete m (strong i-stem; genitive singular metes, nominative plural metas)^[1] Northumbrian mett in the Lindisfarne and Rushworth glosses.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *mati, from Proto-Germanic *matiz (“food”), an old i-stem.^[1][3] The Proto-Germanic noun is continued in Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍃 (mats), Old Norse matr, Old Frisian mete, Old Saxon meti and Old High German maz.^[3][4][5] The same root is in Proto-Germanic *matjaną (“to feed”), whence Old English mettan, and in the compound Proto-Germanic *matisahsą (“knife”), whence meteseax.^[3]

Its further origin is disputed.^[3][4] Kroonen takes it from a root *med- "to satiate", in view of Ancient Greek μεστός (mestós, “full”), and rejects the link with Latin madeō (“to be wet”).^[3] Orel and Köbler connect it with exactly that root, Pokorny's *mad- "wet, fat, dripping", and Orel adds Ancient Greek μαδάω (madáō, “to be moist”).^[4][5]

Hogg and Fulk class it as a light masculine i-stem, one of the most frequent words of that class; beside it there is a rival form ⟨mett⟩, with the doubled consonant of the plural ⟨mettas⟩.^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Mercian gloss to the Vespasian Psalter, of the mid-ninth century: in Psalm 54 ðu somud mid mec spoet nome mettas renders “simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos”, “you took sweet foods together with me”.^[9][10] In the Pastoral Care of the 890s Gregory quotes Paul: Fulga nu se mete ðære wambe willan, & sio wamb ðæs metes “let the food now follow the belly's will, and the belly the food's”.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word means food in general, rendering Latin cibus, esca and dapes.^[2][5] In the laws it is food or board given to a dependant, a portion of food, and ne mete ne munde “neither food nor protection”.^[12][2] It also names a meal: Andreas has it as "meal" and "meat".^[13] Compounds name the meals of the day, morgenmete, undernmete, ǣfenmete, and kinds of food, flǣscmete, wyrtmete.^[2]

It lived on as Middle English mete, still "food, nourishment" in Middle English; the narrower sense "flesh used as food" is recorded from about 1300, and the English word meat has it now.^[14][15]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – mettas for Latin cibos in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[9][10]
• 890×897 – se mete “the food” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[11][10]
• s. x³/⁴ – Northumbrian mett in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[16][2]
• s. x ex. – in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I.^[17][10]
• c. 1300 – Middle English mete in the sense “flesh as food”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. food, nourishment.^[2][5][18]
2. a dish, a portion of food; a meal.^[12][13]
3. (law) food or board given to a dependant.^[12]

Word family

• morgenmete
• undernmete
• ǣfenmete
• nōnmete
• flǣscmete
• wyrtmete
• meteseax

Descendants

• Middle English mete (→ English meat; Scots mete; Scots met)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 681
3. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 358
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 263
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. mete
6. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 2.57
7. ^ Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.41
8. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 138
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
10. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
11. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
12. ^ a b c Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 145
13. ^ a b North, Richard; Bintley, Michael D. J., eds. (2016), Andreas: An Edition, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (glossary), p. s.v. mete
14. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 291
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 407
18. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 234