piecemeal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pecemele,^[2][3][4] formed from English piece + -meal.^[5][6][7] The first element comes from Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin *pettia, probably from Gaulish.^[8] The suffix, Middle English -mele, is from Old English -mǣlum,^[9][7] originally the dative plural of mǣl (“appointed time; measure, quantity taken at one time”), the source of meal,^[5][2][8] from Proto-Indo-European *mē- (“to measure”).^[9][10] The Old English adverb styccemǣlum (“bit by bit”) was built in the same way, and Dictionary.com sees pecemele as replacing it, but the OED notes that the two do not appear to be contiguous in time.^[3][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

One part at a time, by degrees: about 1325, in the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (composed about 1300), both as an adverb and in the phrase by piecemeal.^[5] Etymonline and Barnhart give about 1300,^[8][2] Dictionary.com 1250–1300,^[3] and Collins and Ayto the 13th century.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant little by little, and before 1450, in Lydgate, it was used with verbs such as break, cut and tear for into pieces.^[5] The phrase by piecemeal says the same thing twice, since both by and -meal make an adverb; the OED thinks it arose along with the adverb and led speakers to take piecemeal as a noun, hence plurals such as in piecemeals in Malory and by piecemeals from 1576.^[5] Ayto explains the word as measured piece by piece, the only survival of the measure sense of meal after Middle English.^[10] The adjective appears in Sidney's Arcadia (1593),^[5][7] and Johnson (1755) entered only the adjective, as “single; separate; divided”.^[12] The verb, to divide into small pieces, is first in Cotgrave (1611).^[5] In west Somerset to piecemeal a farm was to let it out in small holdings to several tenants.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – one part at a time, by degrees; also by piecemeal.^[5] Etymonline and Barnhart date it about 1300.^[8][2]
• before 1425 – in piecemeal, in or into pieces (until 1852).^[5]
• before 1450 – into pieces, with verbs such as break or tear.^[5]
• before 1470 – in piecemeals, in or into pieces, in Malory (until 1870).^[5]
• 1593 – adjective, done in pieces or stages; gradual.^[5][7]
• 1603 – noun, small pieces or fragments (until 1817).^[5]
• 1611 – verb, to divide into small pieces.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. One piece at a time; bit by bit, gradually: The collection was sold off piecemeal.^[11][7][5]
2. In or into pieces or fragments: The crows pulled the carcass apart piecemeal.^[11][7][5]

Adjective

1. Done or made in separate stages, often without a general plan; fragmentary: piecemeal reforms.^[11][7][5]

Noun

1. A fragment; usually in the phrase by piecemeal, little by little.^[7][5]

Verb

1. To divide into pieces or distribute in small portions; now rare.^[7][5][6]

Related words

• piece
• meal
• inchmeal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b 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 d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ 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)