meter

Forms

meter (first-person singular present meto, first-person singular preterite metí, past participle metido)^[1] Old Spanish had the syncopated future metré (yo me metré a saberlo, c. 1200).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish meter, inherited from Latin mittō (“to let go, release; to throw; to send”).^[3][4][1][5] The shift from “send” to “put” probably took place in Vulgar Latin.^[1][6] The DHLF and Bénaben describe it as the gradual loss of the idea of speed, which brought the verb close to Latin pōnō (“to put, place”).^[7][8] Late and Medieval Latin already used it for “to put, set”.^[9][10]

The same verb is Portuguese meter, Galician meter, Aragonese meter, Catalan metre, Occitan metre, French mettre and Italian mettere.^[11][1][5]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Italic *meitō and Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”): the sense passed from “exchange” to “give” and then to “let go, send”.^[12][1] An older reconstruction with initial /sm/ rests on a single form in a Latin glossary, which de Vaan does not trust.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to about 1140.^[3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) Martín Antolínez fears for himself: en ira del rey Alfonso yo seré metido “I shall be put under King Alfonso's wrath”.^[2] The first record without a later copy is in the acts of the Cortes of Benavente of 1202: a cleric's inherited land non debe ser metida en regalengo, should not be counted as crown land.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has the verb for putting one thing inside another, for causing fear or peace (metrá paz entre los casados) and for stirring up quarrels.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 lists meter paz, meter cizaña “to sow discord”, meterse donde no le llaman “to meddle” and the proverb Quien mal pleito tiene, mételo a barato: whoever has a bad case should make a confusion of it.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades added the sense “to smuggle in goods without paying duty”, which the Academy kept through the 19th century.^[15][16]

In Leonese, especially in Maragatería and Astorga, meter also means “to hire, take on” a servant or worker.^[17] Latin American Spanish has meterse con “to have an affair with”, and in Mexico, Colombia and elsewhere meter or meterle is “to take drugs” and “to hurry”.^[18][19] In the old thieves' cant meter meant “to eat”.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid;^[2] cometer and acometer are as old.^[2][3]
• 1202 – the acts of the Cortes of Benavente: non debe ser metida en regalengo.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – first record of entremeter “to put between, meddle”.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for putting a stone into water.^[13]
• c. 1295 – first record of arremeter “to charge”.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin immitto and intromitto.^[21]
• 1527 – first record from the Americas, at Santo Domingo.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin mittere “to send”.^[14]
• 1732 – first record of entrometer.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin mittere.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put something inside something else; to insert;^[1] (reflexive) to get into: Metió las llaves en el bolso.^[4][1]
2. To cause, make: meter miedo, meter ruido.^[4][1]
3. To place someone or something somewhere: La metieron en un internado.^[4][23]
4. To draw someone into an affair: Su primo lo metió en el negocio.^[4]
5. To stir up gossip or intrigue.^[4]
6. In games, to stake money; in the card game hombre, to play a trump.^[4]
7. To take in the spare cloth of a garment at the seams.^[4]
8. To cram things into a small space.^[4][1]
9. (sports) To score: meter un gol.^[1]
10. (colloquial) To land a blow: meter un puñetazo.^[4][1]
11. (colloquial) To tell a lie to deceive someone.^[4]
12. (nautical) To take in sails.^[4]
13. (reflexive) To meddle; to pick on someone (meterse con alguien).^[1][23]

Word family

• metedor
• meterete
• metedura
• metido
• metimiento
• metisaca
• entremeter
• entrometer
• remeter
• arremeter

Related words

• admitir
• cometer
• emitir
• metete
• metiche
• misión
• omitir
• permitir
• prometer
• someter
• Latin mittō

Usage notes

Phrases: a todo meter “at full speed”, meter la pata “to put one's foot in it”.^[4][1] With a profession, meterse means to take it up: meterse monja “to become a nun”.^[19][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. meter
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. meter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. meter
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4381
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. meter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mettre
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. meter
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. mittere
10. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. mittere
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5616
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. meter
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1133
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 558
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 700
17. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. meter
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. meter
19. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 720
20. ^ Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 186
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. meter
23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. meter