meek

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English meke, also mek and, chiefly in the south-west and west midlands, meok,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft, pliant, gentle”).^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The OED compares Old Swedish miuker, Swedish mjuk and Danish myg (“supple, lithe”), and notes that the Middle English forms show the word was borrowed before the Scandinavian diphthongs shifted their stress.^[3] The Norse word goes back to Proto-Germanic *meukaz (“soft”),^[8][4][9] a root found in this form only in Scandinavia; the ablaut variant Proto-Germanic *mūk- appears in the first part of Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌺𐌰𐌼𐍉𐌳𐌴𐌹 (mūkamōdei, “meekness”), in Dutch muik and meuk (“soft”) and in Low German muck (“soft”).^[7][3][10] The OED takes it to be probably from the same Germanic base as muck,^[3] and Etymonline and Köbler derive it, perhaps, from Proto-Indo-European *meug- (“slippery, slimy”);^[4][9] Klein compares Old Irish mocht (“mild, gentle”) and Latin mūcus (“mucus of the nose”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gentle, courteous and kind, and also humble and patient under injury: both senses appear about 1175 in the Ormulum.^[3][10] Barnhart dates a form mēok in the Ancrene Riwle probably before 1200 and mēc in the Ormulum about 1200,^[8] and Etymonline dates the word to the late 12th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It entered English as a word of the Church, rendering the Vulgate's Latin mansuetus.^[12][4] From the start it was used of a Christian virtue, being humble and free from pride, as well as of a kind or merciful lord; the second sense died out in the early 17th century.^[3][13][6] The disparaging sense, submissive and easily cowed, is recorded from about 1300.^[4][3][13] In early use the word could also describe a tame animal, especially in Scots, and after about 1230 mild weather or a soft, light substance.^[3] Comparisons like as meek as a lamb and as meek as Moses were proverbial from about 1330,^[3] and Chaucer used the adjective 29 times.^[14] Johnson (1755) defined it as "mild of temper; not proud; not rough; not easily provoked; soft; gentle".^[15] From 1744 flowers could be called meek, modest and unobtrusive.^[3] The meek, meek people, has been used from the Ormulum on, often with an echo of Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth".^[3][4] In Hampshire dialect meek meant low-spirited or easily depressed.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – gentle, kind, humble and patient, of animals tame, the meek (meek people) and the verb, to humble, all in the Ormulum.^[3][7]
• before 1200 – mēok, gentle, humble, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[8]
• c. 1230 – of things or weather, mild, soft, light.^[3]
• c. 1300 – submissive, docile.^[4][3]
• c. 1330 – proverbial as meek as a lamb.^[3]
• before 1382 – adverb, meekly.^[3]
• 1616 – last record of the sense gentle, courteous, kind.^[3]
• 1744 – of flowers, modest, unobtrusive.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Patient and mild; bearing injury or insult without resentment: The meek clerk apologized to the angry customer twice.^[17][18][3]
2. Too ready to give in; lacking spirit or courage; submissive: He was too meek to ask for a raise.^[17][18]
3. Humble; not proud.^[18][3]
4. (obsolete, 1175–1616) Gentle, courteous and kind; of a superior, merciful.^[3][18][6]

Noun

1. the meek: meek people as a group.^[3][4]

Verb

1. (rare) To make meek, to humble.^[17][3][6]

Word family

• meekly
• meekness
• overmeek

Related words

• mucus
• muck
• mansuetude

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins