muid
(mɥi)
Forms: 4–7 muy, 5 muye, mue, 6 mui, 5 mewe, 6–8 mew, 7 mued, 7– muid. See also moy n.1, mud n.2
[a. OF. mui, mod.F. muid:—L. modium: see modius. Cf. Du. mud(de, mud n.2]
1. A former French measure of capacity, varying greatly in different localities and as applied to different commodities. Obs. exc. Hist. a. A dry measure (for corn, meat, salt, etc.).
In recent times the values assigned to it range from about 52 to about 110 bushels; in early use it was a much smaller measure, often stated as = 4 bushels.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 5590 An hundred mauys [so Thynne; read muys; Glasgow MS. mavis; Fr. orig. muis] of whete greyn. 1481 Caxton Godeffroy xl. 78 He gaf to hym ten muyes, every muye is four busshellys. 1549 Compl. Scot. xiv. 113 Annibal send to cartage thre muis of gold ryngis. 1692 Lond. Gaz. No. 2831/2 The offer..of furnishing them with 18000 Muids [of Corn] at a reasonable Price. 1703 Ibid. No. 3891/4 About 57 Mews of Bay-Salt. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Bushel, The Half-Minot contains three Bushels, and the Muid of Coals contains thirty Half-Minots. 1771 Chron. in Ann. Reg. XIV. 100/1 In Swabia the muid of rye sells for 36 florins. 1804 Ranken Hist. France III. v. 318 A modius or muid of seed yielded but a setier. 1859 R. J. Mann Colony of Natal 124 One farmer in the Umvoti country reaped 120 muids (of 2243/256 bushels each) from 30 acres of land which had been sown with 5 muids of seed. 1873 [see boermeal (Boer 2)]. |
† b. A liquid measure; a cask holding this.
The local varieties ranged from 60 to 160 gallons.
| 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xxxvii. 47 There was thenne estemyd fruyte ynough for to gadre an hundred mues, or tonnes of wyne. 1529 Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Rom. (1811) 22 A mew of wyne which is almost iiii galons. c 1618 Moryson Itin. iv. (1903) 173 Each Mued of Wyne commonly yeildes the king Eighteene Shillings of our mony. 1655 Nicholas Papers (Camden) II. 160 They have established to her her pretentions of soe much upon every muy of wine as amounts unto the best part of a million per annum. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 62 Accounting 72 Gallons to the Hogshead, the Muid contains scarce 5/6 of a Hogshead. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Muid is also one of the nine casks, or regular vessels used in France, to put wine and other liquors in. |
2. A French measure of land, representing the area that would require a ‘muid’ of seed.
| 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 114 A Muid of Land is 12 Septiers or Arpents. |