meaty

Etymology

It is formed from English meat + -y.^[2][3][4][5] The noun is from Middle English mete, from Old English mete (“food, nourishment”), from Proto-Germanic *matiz.^[3][6][7] The OED compares the earlier adjective meatish.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person or animal, fleshy, brawny: 1787, in W. Marshall's list of provincialisms in his Rural Economy of Norfolk.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates it to about 1787.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a farming term of the English regions: the English Dialect Dictionary records it from Yorkshire, the Midlands, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Sussex, Somerset and Cornwall, among others, for animals that are fleshy but not fat and ready for the butcher.^[9] Webster (1828) defined it the same way, as a local word.^[10] From the 1850s it was used of food containing plenty of meat (1851) and of things tasting or smelling like meat (1853, though Etymonline dates this to 1864).^[2][3] The figurative sense, full of substance or interest, began in the United States in 1874;^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1881.^[2][3] In slang from 1930 the word could mean sexually attractive,^[11] and in recent British children's slang a meaty is a gob of spit with phlegm in it.^[11]

Timeline

• 1787 – of a person or animal, fleshy, muscular.^[2][3]
• 1851 – of food, containing much meat.^[2][12]
• 1853 – having the taste, smell or texture of meat.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to 1864.^[3]
• 1874 – figurative, full of substance or interest (originally American).^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1881.^[3]
• 1930 – slang, sexually attractive.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Containing a lot of meat: a meaty pie.^[13][8][2]
2. Heavily built; fleshy or brawny: He shook hands with a meaty fist.^[13][8][2]
3. Tasting, smelling or feeling like meat.^[2]
4. Full of substance or interest; giving plenty to think about: a meaty report.^[13][8][2]
5. (Judaism) Another word for fleishik.^[13]

Word family

• meatiness
• meatily

Related words

• meat

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins