mete

mete

See also: Mete, meté, metę, mɛtɛ, metë, and Metë

English

WOTD – 15 September 2006

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /miːt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːt
  • Homophones: meat, meet

Etymology 1

    From Middle English meten, from Old English metan (to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse), from Proto-West Germanic *metan, from Proto-Germanic *metaną (to measure), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (to measure, consider).

    Cognate with Scots mete (to measure), Saterland Frisian meete (to measure), West Frisian mjitte (to measure), Dutch meten (to measure), German messen (to measure), Swedish mäta (to measure), Latin modus (limit, measure, target), Ancient Greek μεδίμνος (medímnos, measure, bushel), Ancient Greek μέδεσθαι (médesthai, care for), Old Armenian միտ (mit, mind).

    Verb

    mete (third-person singular simple present metes, present participle meting, simple past and past participle meted)

    1. (transitive, usually with “out”) To dispense, measure in order to dispense, allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
      • 1833, Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses:
        Match'd with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
        Unequal laws unto a savage race
      • 1929, Kirby Page, Jesus Or Christianity A Study In Contrasts[1], page 31:
        Every generation metes out substantially the same punishment to those who fall far below and those who rise high above its standards.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, [] (King James Version), London: [] Robert Barker, [], →OCLC, Matthew 7:2:
        For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
      • 1870s Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Soothsay, lines 80-83
        the Power that fashions man
        Measured not out thy little span
        For thee to take the meting-rod
        In turn,
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Etymology 2

      From Middle English mete, from Old French mete (boundary, boundary marker), from Latin mēta (post, goal, marker). Cognate with the second element in Old English wullmod (distaff).

      Noun

      mete (plural metes)

      1. A boundary or other limit; a boundary-marker; mere.
      Translations

      Etymology 3

        From Middle English mete, imete, from Old English mǣte, ġemǣte (moderate, suitable). More at meet.

        Adjective

        mete (comparative more mete, superlative most mete)

        1. Obsolete spelling of meet (suitable, fitting).
          • 1570, Margaret Ascham, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, foreword:
            I could not finde any man for whose name this booke was more agreable for hope [of] protection, more mete for submission to iudgement, nor more due for respect of worthynesse of your part and thankefulnesse of my husbandes and myne.

        Anagrams

        Czech

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): [ˈmɛtɛ]

        Verb

        mete

        1. third-person singular present indicative of mést

        Dutch

        Verb

        mete

        1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of meten

        Anagrams

        Estonian

        Noun

        mete

        1. genitive plural of mesi

        Galician

        Verb

        mete

        1. inflection of meter:
          1. third-person singular present indicative
          2. second-person singular imperative

        Haitian Creole

        Etymology

        From Saint Dominican Creole French mété, from French mettre.

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): /mete/

        Verb

        mete

        1. to put
        2. to put on

        References

        • Targète, Jean; Urciolo, Raphael (1993), Haitian Creole-English Dictionary[2], Dunwoody Press, →ISBN, page 129

        Indonesian

        Etymology 1

        Borrowed from Javanese mété (cashew).

        Pronunciation

        Noun

        mete (plural mete-mete)

        1. cashew
          Synonym: kacang mete

        Etymology 2

        Borrowed from Kupang Malay [Term?].

        Pronunciation

        Verb

        mete

        1. (dialectal, Rote) to stand guard waiting for a body that has not been buried
        2. (dialectal, Kupang) to stay up late (wait for something)

        Further reading

        Italian

        Noun

        mete f

        1. plural of meta

        Anagrams

        Latin

        Pronunciation

        Verb

        mete

        1. second-person singular present active imperative of metō

        Lithuanian

        Noun

        metè

        1. locative singular of mẽtas (time)

        Noun

        mẽte

        1. vocative singular of mẽtas (time)

        Mauritian Creole

        Etymology

        From French mettre. Compare Haitian Creole mete.

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): /mete/

        Verb

        mete (medial form met)

        1. to put; put on
        2. to set
        3. to wear

        Middle English

        Etymology 1

          From Old English mete (food) (also met, mett, whence the forms with a short vowel). More at meat.

          Alternative forms

          Pronunciation

          • IPA(key): /ˈmɛ̞ːt(ə)/, /ˈmɛt(ə)/

          Noun

          mete (plural metes or meten)

          1. Food, nourishment or comestibles; that which is eaten:
            • c. 1275, Judas (Roud 2964, Child Ballad 23, Trinity College MS. B.14.39), folio 34, recto, lines 3-4; republished at Cambridge: Wren Digital Library (Trinity College), 29 May 2019:
              Iudaſ þou moſt to iurſelem oure mete foꝛ to bugge / þritti platen of ſelu[er] þou bere up oþi rugge []
              "Judas, you must go to Jerusalem to buy our food; / You'll have thirty pieces of silver on your back []
            • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “lxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:
              And thenne he blewe his horne that the maronners had yeuen hym / And whanne they within the Castel herd that horne / they put forthe many knyghtes and there they stode vpon the walles / and said with one voys / welcome be ye to this castel / [] / and sire Palomydes entred in to the castel / And within a whyle he was serued with many dyuerse metes
              And then he blew his horn that the mariners had given him / And when they that were within the castle heard that horn / they put forth many knights and there they stood upon walls / and said with one voice: / “be welcome to this castle” / [] / and Sir Palamedes entered into the castle / And after a while he was served with many diverse meats
            1. A store or supply of food.
            2. An individual serving of food, especially when cooked.
            3. Meat; the (usually cooked) flesh of animals as (an item of) food.
            4. Food that animals eat (including prey or lures)
          2. The act of dining; a lunch.
          Derived terms
          Descendants
          • English: meat
          • Scots: mete, met, meit, mait
          • Yola: maate, met, mett
          References

          Etymology 2

            From Old French mete (boundary, mere), from Latin mēta. More at mete.

            Pronunciation

            • IPA(key): /ˈmɛːt(ə)/

            Noun

            mete

            1. boundary, target, point, position
            Descendants

            Etymology 3

              From Old English ġemǣte (suitable, meet), from Proto-Germanic *mētijaz, a variant of *mētiz. More at meet.

              Alternative forms

              Pronunciation

              • IPA(key): /ˈmɛ̝ːt(ə)/, /ˈmeːt(ə)/

              Adjective

              mete

              1. suitable, fitting, appropriate
              2. pleasing, accommodating, useful
              3. right in shape or size, well-fitting
              Descendants

              Adverb

              mete

              1. appropriately
              2. copiously

              References

              • The Middle English Dictionary (M.E.D.)[3]
              • Riverside Chaucer[4]

              Old English

              Alternative forms

              Etymology

              From Proto-West Germanic *mati.

              Pronunciation

              • IPA(key): /ˈme.te/
              • Rhymes: -e.te

              Noun

              mete m

              1. food
                • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Saint Augustine's Soliloquies
                  Ne lyst mē nāwiht ðāra metta þe ic forhātan habbe, ac mē lyst ðāra þe ic getiohhod habbe tō ætanne, ðonne ic hī gesēo.
                  I desire none of those meats which I have renounced; I desire those which I have thought right to eat, when I see them.

              Declension

              Strong i-stem:

              singular plural
              nominative mete metas
              accusative mete metas
              genitive metes meta
              dative mete metum

              Derived terms

              Descendants

              Old Frisian

              Alternative forms

              Etymology

              From Proto-West Germanic *mati.

              Noun

              mete

              1. food, especially sustenance (as opposed to desserts, snacks, or sweets)

              Descendants

              • North Frisian:
                Sylt: Miit

              Portuguese

              Alternative forms

              • mette (pre-standardization spelling)

              Pronunciation

               

              • Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɛt͡ʃi, (Portugal) -ɛtɨ
              • Hyphenation: me‧te

              Verb

              mete

              1. inflection of meter:
                1. third-person singular present indicative
                2. second-person singular imperative

              Rawa

              Adjective

              mete

              1. good

              References

              Serbo-Croatian

              Verb

              mete (Cyrillic spelling мете)

              1. third-person singular present of mesti

              Spanish

              Pronunciation

              • IPA(key): /ˈmete/ [ˈme.t̪e]
              • Rhymes: -ete
              • Syllabification: me‧te

              Verb

              mete

              1. inflection of meter:
                1. third-person singular present indicative
                2. second-person singular imperative

              Sumerian

              Romanization

              mete

              1. romanization of 𒋼 (mete)

              Swedish

              Etymology

              From meta (angle for fish).

              Noun

              mete n

              1. (fishing) angling for fish

              Declension

              See also

              References

              Walloon

              Etymology

              From Old French metre, from Latin mittō, mittere (send).

              Pronunciation

              • IPA(key): /mɛt/

              Verb

              mete

              1. to put

              Conjugation

              West Makian

              Etymology

              Likely cognate with Ternate mote (to follow).

              Pronunciation

              • IPA(key): /ˈme.t̪e/

              Verb

              mete

              1. (transitive) to follow

              Conjugation

              Conjugation of mete (action verb)
              singular plural
              inclusive exclusive
              1st person temete memete amete
              2nd person nemete femete
              3rd person inanimate imete demete
              animate
              imperative nemete, mete femete, mete

              References

              • Clemens Voorhoeve (1982), The Makian languages and their neighbours[5], Pacific linguistics