meed
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK, General American) IPA(key): /miːd/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Homophone: mead
- Rhymes: -iːd
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English meede, mede, from Old English mēd, meord, meard, meorþ (“meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe”), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀdu, from Proto-Germanic *mizdō (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰéh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange”).
Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), Low German mede (“payment, wages, reward”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌶𐌳𐍉 (mizdō, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”), Ancient Greek μισθός (misthós, “wage”), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mĭzda, “reward”), Sanskrit मीळ्ह (mīḷhá), Sanskrit मीढ (mīḍhá), Avestan 𐬨𐬍𐬲𐬛𐬀 (mīžda).
Noun
[edit]meed (plural meeds)
- (now literary, archaic) A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward, deserts; award.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 6:
- For well ſhe wiſt,as true it was indeed / That her liues Lord and patrone of her health / Right well deſerued as his duefull meed, / Her loue,her ſeruice,and her vtmoſt wealth.
- 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC:
- Brought up in darkness, and the child of sin,
Yet, as the meed of spotless innocence,
Just Heaven permitted her by one good deed
To work her own redemption, after death.
- 1829, Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress:
- Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which may here after operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars.
- 1880, translation by Richard Francis Burton of Os Lusiadas, Canto IX, stanza 93 by Luís de Camões
- Better to merit and the meed to miss,
than, lacking merit, every meed possess.
- Better to merit and the meed to miss,
- 1904, Stanley J. Weyman, “V. The Captain of Vlaye”, in The Abbess of Vlaye:
- Nor, save for a circumstance presently to be named, could even the Abbess's sullen curiosity have withheld a meed of admiration as the panorama unfolded itself before her.
- 1936, Agatha Christie, The A.B.C. Murders:
- [Poirot continued,] "And here a full meed of praise is due to Hastings, who made a simple and obvious remark to which no attention was paid."
- A gift; bribe.
- (dated) Merit or desert; worth.
- c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii], page 167, column 2:
- […] my meed hath got me fame: […]
- 1934, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Commentary on The Holy Qur'an, note 3687 on 33:16:
- In any case, his life would be in ignominy and would be brief, and he would have lost irretrievably the meed of valour.
Quotations
[edit]- For quotations using this term, see Citations:meed.
Derived terms
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀdōn, from Proto-Germanic *mizdōną (“to reward”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with German Low German meden (“to hire, lease, rent”), German mieten (“to rent”).
Verb
[edit]meed (third-person singular simple present meeds, present participle meeding, simple past and past participle meeded)
- (transitive) To reward; bribe.
- (transitive) To deserve; merit.
See also
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Central Franconian
[edit]Adjective
[edit]meed
- Alternative spelling of med
Dutch
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]meed
Anagrams
[edit]Estonian
[edit]Noun
[edit]meed
- nominative plural of mesi
Middle English
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Noun
[edit]meed
- Alternative form of mede (“mead (beverage)”)
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]meed
- Alternative form of mede (“meadow”)
Etymology 3
[edit]Noun
[edit]meed
- Alternative form of mede (“reward”)
Plautdietsch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle Low German möde, from Old Saxon mōthi, from Proto-West Germanic *mōþī.
Adjective
[edit]meed
Antonyms
[edit]- munta (brisk, lively)
Derived terms
[edit]See also
[edit]- schleeprich (sleepy)
- hoojoonen (to sigh, to yawn)
- enoolent (tired of, sick of)
- kjnirr (weary)
Further reading
[edit]- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/iːd
- Rhymes:English/iːd/1 syllable
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (change)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English literary terms
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with quotations
- English dated terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- Central Franconian lemmas
- Central Franconian adjectives
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/eːt
- Rhymes:Dutch/eːt/1 syllable
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- Estonian non-lemma forms
- Estonian noun forms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Plautdietsch terms inherited from Middle Low German
- Plautdietsch terms derived from Middle Low German
- Plautdietsch terms inherited from Old Saxon
- Plautdietsch terms derived from Old Saxon
- Plautdietsch terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Plautdietsch terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Plautdietsch lemmas
- Plautdietsch adjectives
- Plautdietsch 1-syllable words