meed

See also: Meed

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /miːd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Homophone: mead
• Rhymes: -iːd

Etymology 1

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

meed (plural meeds)

1. (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, volumes (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.

2. A gift; bribe.
3. (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

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:meed.

Derived terms

• meedful
• meedless

Etymology 2

From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mizdōną (“to reward”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with Middle Low German mēden (“to reward”), German mieten (“to rent”).

Verb

meed (third-person singular simple present meeds, present participle meeding, simple past and past participle meeded)

1. (transitive) To reward; bribe.
2. (transitive) To deserve; merit.

See also

• sosh meed

Anagrams

• Deem, Mede, deem, deme

Central Franconian

Adjective

meed

1. Alternative spelling of med

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːt

Verb

meed

1. singular past indicative of mijden

Anagrams

• mede

Estonian

Noun

meed

1. nominative plural of mesi

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

meed

1. Alternative form of mede (“mead (beverage)”)

Etymology 2

Noun

meed

1. Alternative form of mede (“meadow”)

Etymology 3

Noun

meed

1. Alternative form of mede (“reward”)

Plautdietsch

Etymology

From Middle Low German möde, from Old Saxon mōthi, from Proto-West Germanic *mōþī.

Adjective

meed

1. tired, weary, fatigued, fagged

   hee wia sea meed

   he was very tired

Antonyms

• munta (brisk, lively)

Derived terms

• äwameed (overtired)
• huntmeed (dog-tired)

See also

• schleeprich (sleepy)
• hoojoonen (to sigh, to yawn)
• enoolent (tired of, sick of)
• kjnirr (weary)

Further reading

• Plautdietsch Lexicon of 17,000 words