mete

mete¹ to measure, allot

Etymology

The verb for measuring and allotting is inherited from Middle English meten,^[2][3] inherited from Old English metan (“to measure”), past tense mæt, past participle meten,^[4][5][2] from Proto-Germanic *metaną (“to measure”).^[4][6][7][8] Its cognates include Old Frisian meta, Old Saxon metan, Middle Dutch mēten, Dutch meten, Old High German mezzan, German messen, Old Norse meta (“to value”), Swedish mäta and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (mitan, “to measure, gauge”).^[9][6] These go back to Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, take appropriate measures”),^[4][6][10] which is also the source of Latin meditor (“to reflect”), medeor (“to heal”) and modus (“measure, manner”), of Ancient Greek μέδομαι (médomai, “to be mindful of, provide for”), and of Old Irish midiur (“I judge”).^{[9][6][11][8]} The OED thinks that the base is probably related, in a way not yet explained, to those of measure and meal.^[9] The adjective meet, suitable, comes from the same Germanic base.^[12][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To measure: Barnhart dates it to about 725, in Beowulf,^[6] and the OED's first quotation for this sense is from Ælfric's Grammar, where Ic mete translates the Latin metior.^[9][5]

Semantic evolution

Old English used the verb for measuring and marking off,^[5] for traversing a distance, for estimating the worth of a thing, and for assigning in portions.^[9] The strong forms gave way to weak ones from the 14th century on, and had gone by the late 16th.^[9] Measuring survived chiefly in the words of Matthew 7:2 in the Authorized Version: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you againe”.^[13] Johnson (1755), who derived it from Latin, still defined the verb as "to measure".^[14] In Scottish, northern English and Yorkshire dialect it still meant to measure in the 19th century.^[15] Allotting, the surviving sense, is dated before 1225 by Barnhart and about 1300 by Etymonline,^[6][4] though the OED finds it already in the Old English Rushworth Gospels.^[9] Mete out first appears in the Coverdale Bible of 1535,^[6] and is now almost the only form in use.^[4][6][3] Weekley thought that some of its senses were affected by the archaic noun for a boundary,^[16] and the OED suggests that the sense "to mark the boundary of" may in later use have been felt as derived from that noun.^[9] A noun for measure or extent arose from the verb in the 18th century.^[9][13]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to measure, and in Beowulf to traverse a distance (obsolete by 1803).^[6][9]
• Old English – to mark the boundary or course of something, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[9]
• Old English – to estimate the value of something (obsolete by 1866).^[9]
• Old English – to apportion, in the Rushworth Gospels.^[9] Barnhart dates this sense to before 1225,^[6] and Etymonline to about 1300.^[4]
• 1535 – mete out, in the Coverdale Bible.^[6]
• 1600 – to come to a full measure or amount (obsolete by 1796).^[9]
• 1768 – noun, extent as found by measuring; a person's calibre (obsolete by 1871).^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. Usually mete out: to distribute or allot something, often something unpleasant such as punishment: The coach meted out extra laps to latecomers.^[17][3][9]
2. (archaic, poetic or dialect) To measure.^[17][3][13]
3. (archaic) To judge the value of; to appraise.^[3][9]
4. (obsolete) To mark out the boundary or course of something.^[9][13]

Noun

1. (poetic or dialect) A measure.^[17][3][13]

Word family

• metage
• unmeted

mete² boundary, limit

Etymology tree of mete²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin mēta

English mete

Italian meta

Etymology

The noun for a boundary is borrowed from Anglo-Norman mete (“limit, boundary”) and Middle French mete, also mette,^[9][18][3] and, according to Barnhart and Etymonline, directly borrowed from Latin mēta (“goal, turning post, boundary”).^{[6][4][9][17]} The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1141,^[18] while the OED cites Old French from 1283.^[9] The further origin of the Latin noun is uncertain and disputed;^[9][4] Barnhart suggests that it is perhaps cognate with Lithuanian miētas (“stake”) and with a Sanskrit word for a pillar.^[6] The phrase metes and bounds follows Anglo-Norman metes et boundes, recorded in 1325,^[9] and Etymonline cites Anglo-Latin metis et bundis from the early 14th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A goal, a turning point or finishing point, also a mark or target: 1402, in the Reply of Friar Daw Topias.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense in English, close to the Latin goal or turning post of a race,^[17] was obsolete by the end of the 15th century.^[9][13] The sense "boundary, limit" followed: about 1440 in Barnhart,^[6] and in Caxton's Recuyell about 1473 in the OED and Etymonline.^[9][4] It could be a boundary stone or mark, or a limit of an immaterial kind.^[9][13] It now survives only in the legal phrase metes and bounds.^[9][4][3]

Timeline

• 1402 – a goal or turning point; a mark or target (obsolete by 1500).^[9][6]
• c. 1440 – a boundary or limit.^[6] The OED first quotes this sense from Caxton, about 1473.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) A boundary, limit or boundary mark, now chiefly in the legal phrase metes and bounds.^{[17][3][9][13]}
2. (obsolete, 1402–1500) A goal or target.^[9][13]