meddle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English medlen,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman medler (“to mix, mingle; to meddle”),^[4][5][2] recorded from about 1165 in the OED, while the Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from the early 12th century.^[4][5] This is a variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French mesler, modern French mêler,^[4][6][7] and Barnhart and Etymonline call the form with d Old North French.^[8][9] It comes from Medieval Latin misculō, recorded in the 9th century,^[4] which Barnhart, the American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline give as Vulgar Latin,^[8][10][9] from Latin misceō (“to mix”),^[4][10][8] from Proto-Indo-European *meik- (“to mix”).^[9][10] That verb is also the source of Old Occitan mesclar, Spanish mezclar, and Italian mescolare and mischiare.^[4][9] The d records a stage of French in which s before a voiced dental became a voiced dental sound before disappearing; this stage lasted longer in Anglo-Norman, so English has meddle beside mell, and medley beside mellay.^[4] Weekley suggests that the d survived through association with middle.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To mix people among others or together: about 1300, in a life of Saint Brendan.^[4] Barnhart also dates medlen, to mix or mingle, to about 1300, with the earlier form melen before 1300,^[8] and Etymonline has the early 14th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The main senses of the English verb were already present in Anglo-Norman and Old French: mixing things and people, fighting, and interfering.^[4] Mixing, of people or of liquids and other substances, was the older sense in English and died out by the 17th century,^[4][9][6] though Johnson (1755) still recorded it, labelled obsolete.^[12] To fight is recorded from about 1400,^[4] and to have sexual intercourse from before 1398, which the OED notes is now regional in the southern United States.^[4] The reflexive use, to busy oneself with something, is recorded before 1375,^[4] and Weekley takes the usual modern sense from it, comparing French se mêler.^[11] At first this involved no blame: Trench (1859) points out that Barrow distinguished meddling from being meddlesome and condemned only the latter, and that Tyndale's 1 Thessalonians tells readers to meddle with your own business.^[13] The sense of interfering is recorded before 1338 in Barnhart and before 1375 in the OED,^[8][4] and this is the one that survives.^[9][6] Johnson derived the transitive verb from French and the intransitive one from Dutch middelen.^[12] In dialect the phrase meddle or make means to interfere in other people's affairs, and in Scotland and Ireland meddle with a direct object means to hurt or annoy.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to mix people among others (obsolete by 1600).^[4]
• before 1338 – to interfere.^[8] The OED's first record, to concern oneself unduly, is from before 1375.^[4]
• c. 1350 – to mix one substance with another (obsolete by 1658).^[4]
• before 1375 – reflexive, to busy oneself with something (obsolete by 1671).^[4]
• before 1398 – to have sexual intercourse.^[4] Etymonline dates this to the mid-14th century.^[9]
• c. 1390 – of people, to mix in company.^[4]
• c. 1400 – to fight.^[4]
• 1602 – noun, an act of meddling.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To interfere in the affairs of others without right or invitation, followed by in or with: He could not stop meddling in his sister's marriage.^[15][16][6]
2. (dialect) With a direct object, to interfere with, disturb, hurt or annoy.^[16][14]
3. (rare) To fight, usually followed by with.^[4][16]
4. (regional, southern United States) To have sexual intercourse.^[4][6]
5. (archaic) To occupy oneself with something; to deal with it.^[16][12]
6. (obsolete, c. 1350–1658) To mix or mingle things.^[4][16][12]

Noun

1. An act of meddling; interference.^[4]

Word family

• meddler
• meddlingly
• overmeddle
• meddlesome

Related words

• mix
• medley
• melee
• mell
• miscellaneous
• promiscuous

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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)
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
14. ^ a b 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)
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster