meal

Meal, food eaten at one time, and meal, ground grain, are different words.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /miːl/^[4]

meal¹ food

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mele, inherited from Old English mǣl (“appointed time, mealtime, meal”),^[1][2] from Proto-Germanic *mēla-,^[1][2] the source also of Dutch maal “time; meal”, German Mal “time” and Mahl “meal”, Old Norse mál “measure, time, meal” and Gothic mēl “time”.^[1][2] It is from Proto-Indo-European *me- (“to measure”),^[1] and related to measure.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English a measure (about 1000, now obsolete),^[6] and an occasion of taking food at a customary time: about 897 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Its first meaning “time” survives in piecemeal.^[1][5] German Mahlzeit and Welsh pryd show the same link between “time” and “meal”.^[2] An occasion of eating, without reference to time, and the food eaten are from about 1200.^[6][1] To make a meal of meant to devour (1610),^[6] and later to make too much of something.^[5] A meal ticket was a ticket to a dining hall by 1865, and a source of livelihood from 1899.^[1] Meals on wheels is from 1952 as a social service.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 897 – a customary meal.^[6]
• c. 1200 – food eaten at one time.^[6]
• 1610 – make a meal of.^[6]
• 1899 – meal ticket, a livelihood.^[1]
• 1952 – meals on wheels.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An occasion when food is eaten, such as breakfast, lunch or dinner.
2. The food eaten on such an occasion.

meal² ground grain

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mele, inherited from Old English melu,^[1][2] from Proto-Germanic *melwan,^[1][2] literally “what is ground”, related to Old High German and Gothic malan “to grind”.^[1][2] It is from Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“to crush, grind”),^[1][2] the root also of Latin molere “to grind”, Greek mýlē “mill”^[2][7] and English mill.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The edible part of a grain or pulse ground to powder: about 888 in the OED, in Alfred's Boethius.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

A powder made by grinding anything, as in linseed meal, is from 1549.^[6] It is now commonly understood to exclude wheat, which is called flour.^[1] Of the same meal, of the same kind, is from 1611.^[6] Mealy is from 1533, in Elyot's Castel of Helth, and mealy-mouthed, unwilling to speak plainly, from about 1572.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 888 – ground grain.^[6]
• 1533 – mealy.^[2]
• 1549 – any ground powder.^[6]
• c. 1572 – mealy-mouthed.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The edible part of a grain ground into a coarse powder.
2. Any powder made by grinding: bone meal.

Related words

• piecemeal
• measure
• mill
• molar

Usage notes

Two rarer words are an Old English meal, a tub or bucket (before 700), and an Orkney weight (1597).^[6][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press