▪ I. mead1
(miːd)
Forms: α. 1 medo, meodu, 3–7 mede, 4 meed, meode, 5 med, meyde, 6 meade, 6–7 Sc. meid, 6– mead. β. 3–4 meth, 4–5 meeth, 4–6 methe, 6 meedth, 6–7 meathe, 6–8 meath.
[Com. Teut. and Aryan: OE. meodu str. masc. = OFris., MLG., MDu. mede (Du. mede, mee), OHG. metu, mitu (MHG. mete, met, mod.G. met), ON. miǫð-r (Da. mi{obar}d, Sw. mjöd), Gothic *midu-s (not recorded exc. in Gr. transcription as µέδος, given by Priscus as the name at the Hunnish court a.d. 448 for the drink which there took the place of wine):—OTeut. *medu-z:—OAryan *medhu-s; cf. Skr. mádhu neut., honey, sweet drink, OSl. medŭ honey, wine, Lith. midù-s mead, medùs honey, Gr. µέθυ wine, OIrish mid, genit. meda, Welsh medd. The word may have been orig. an elliptical use of an adj. meaning ‘sweet’ (= Skr. mádhu adj.).
The βforms may be partly from ON. and partly from Welsh; with regard to the latter cf. the adoption from Welsh of the synonymous (but unrelated) metheglin.]
a. An alcoholic liquor made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water: also called metheglin.
The distinction alleged in quot. 1609 (under β) was prob. merely a figment of the writer's own.
| α Beowulf 604 (Gr.) Gæþ eft, se þe mot, to medo modiᵹ. a 1000 Riddles xxi. 12 (Gr.) Þær hy meodu drincað. c 1205 Lay. 6928 Ah longe leouede here Cherin, muchel he dronk mede [c 1275 meþ] and win. 1390 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 43, xxiiij barellis de meed. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxviii. 111 It is swetter then med. 1483 Cath. Angl. 232/2 Meyde (A. Methe), idromellum, medus, medo. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. xviii. 49 By occasion of their Mead, they fell into talke of Bees. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 383 ¶6 A Masque..asked him if he would drink a Bottle of Mead with her? 1767 H. Glasse Cookery App. 353 How to make mead. Ibid. 374 To make white mead. 1891 T. Hardy Tess II. 62, I found the mead..extremely alcoholic. |
| β c 1275 [see α]. c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 194 He sente hire pyment Meeth and spyced Ale. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xx. 121 Without sidir and wijn and meeth, men and wommen myȝte lyue ful long. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 58 b, They say they will be verie pleasant, if the seede be steeped in meedth. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. (1634) 162 Meth or Hydromel is of two sorts, the weaker and the stronger (Mede and Methæglen). a 1674 Milton Hist. Mosc. i. Wks. 1851 VIII. 480 Thir Drink is better, being sundry sorts of Meath. 1747 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 463 He begs a thousand acknowledgements to you for all favours, particularly the meath. |
b. transf. (
a)
poet. nonce-use (see
quot.). (
b) Now applied to several made beverages,
esp. U.S. ‘a sweet drink charged with carbonic gas, and flavored with some syrup, as sarsaparilla’ (
Cent. Dict. 1890).
| 1667 Milton P.L. v. 345 For drink the Grape She crushes, inoffensive moust, and meathes From many a berrie. |
c. attrib. and
Comb., chiefly
arch. or
Hist. in terms relating to Teutonic antiquities, as
mead-horn;
mead-bench (
OE. medubęnc), a seat at a feast when mead was drunk;
mead-hall (
OE. meduheall), a banqueting hall. Also
† mead-inn, an inn where mead is the beverage sold;
mead-wine, a home-made ‘wine’ prepared from mead.
| 1860 Hook Lives Abps. I. v. 181 Nobles left their halls and the *mead-bench. 1959 A. G. Brodeur Art of Beowulf 16 A mead-bench is a seat in a royal hall, where the dispensing of good drink symbolizes the warm relationship between lord and retainer. |
| 1881 Green Making of Eng. 173 The leader..gave them..a seat in his *mead hall. 1903 L. F. Anderson Anglo-Saxon Scop 36 Personal valour and prowess on the field of battle, courage.., hardihood.., these were the all-absorbing topics of conversation in the mead-hall. 1968 E. B. Irving Reading of Beowulf v. 242 The clustering of the clan family in the lighted mead-hall. |
| 1870 Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 391 Shun the *mead-horn. |
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. ii. ii. (1651) 74 Be merry together..as our modern Muscovites do in their *Mede-Inns. |
| 1804–6 Syd. Smith Mor. Philos. (1850) 248 Every clergyman's wife makes *mead-wine of the honey. |
▪ II. mead2 Now
poet. and
dial. (
miːd)
Forms: 1
mǽd,
Anglian méd, 3
med, 3–6
mede, 4
maied, 4, 6
meed(e, 5
Sc. meide, 5–6
Sc. meid, 6
mydde, 6–7
meade, 6–
mead.
[OE. mǽd str. fem.:—OTeut. type *mæ̂dwâ: see meadow. By phonetic law the
w was dropped in the
nom. sing. in
OE., and retained in the other forms. Although the regular inflexion is the more common, the oblique cases and
pl. are sometimes found assimilated to the
nom. sing., as
gen. and
dat. mǽde (
dat. also
méda as from a
u-stem),
pl. mǽda.]
= meadow 1.
| c 1000 in Napier O.E. Glosses 5/138 Prata, i. uiriditates, mæda. a 1250 Owl & Night. 438 Þe blostme ginneþ springe and sprede Beoþe ine treo and ek on mede. c 1290 Becket 1722 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 156 In ane Mede þat men cleopiez ȝuyte ‘þe traitores mede’. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 11255 Sir Ion giffard fram brumesfeld þuder sone com To þe castle med wiþoute toun. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 89 Embrouded was he, as it were a mede Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and rede. 1508 Dunbar Tua mariit Wemen 514 And all remuffit the myst, and the meid smellit. 1551 Turner Herbal i. B v, The second [kind of garlick] groweth in myddes and feldes in euery cuntre. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 195 Riuers sweete along the meedes. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. i. 66 Of all these bounds..With plenteous Riuers, and wide-skirted Meades We make thee Lady. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xii. 160 A goodly mead, which men there call the Hide. 1713 C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 292 The loos'd Horse..Comes slowly grazing thro' th' adjoining Meads. 1799 W. Tooke View Russian Emp. I. 73 Artificial meads, as not deemed necessary, are unusual. 1812 Brackenridge Views Louisiana (1814) 105 These natural meads. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad v, Oh may I squire you round the meads And pick you posies gay? |
† b. Meadow-land;
= meadow 1 b.
Obs.| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 3887 In þe oþer half beþ grete wodes lese & mede al so. 1455 Rolls of Parlt. V. 313/1, vii acres of Mede, liggyng in the Mede beside the Brigge. 1670 Conn. Col. Rec. (1852) II. 133 This Court grants Mr. Benjamin Fenn, two hundred and fifty acres of land, whereof there may be thirty of mead. |
c. attrib. and
Comb., as
† mead-gavel, a rent for meadow land;
mead grass, meadow grass,
esp. Poa pratensis;
mead ground, meadow land;
mead-month, quasi-
arch., an alleged
OE. name for July;
† mead-rattle,
app. ground ivy or speedwell;
† mead silver (see
quot.).
| 1235–53 Rentalia Glaston. (Somerset Rec. Soc.) 54 Hii qui solvunt *Medgavel. |
| 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric., Digest 66 Cut Clover early,—*Meadgrass late. |
| 1453 in Trevelyan Papers (Camden) 22 With viij acr. of *meade grounde. 1571 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 336 Fyve acres of meade ground lying in Botley meade. |
| 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 584 In *mede month; Hay time. 1714 J. Fortescue-Aland Fortescue's Abs. & Lim. Mon. Notes 116 July was called Mæde-monað, Mead-Month. 1849 Lytton K. Arthur viii. xiv, Roved the same pastures when the Mead-month smil'd. |
| c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 28/1 Camepiteos..uel germandria maior..angl. *mederatele. |
| 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Cobham, The parishioners pay no tithe-hay, but a composition..of 1d. an acre, which is called *Mead Silver. |
▪ III. mead obs. form of
meed n.