mead - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English mede, from Old English medu, from Proto-West Germanic *medu, from Proto-Germanic *meduz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey; honey wine”).

Cognate with Ancient Greek μέθυ (méthu) (whence English methyl), Lithuanian medùs, Old Church Slavonic медъ (medŭ, “honey”), Persian می (mey), Sanskrit मधु (mádhu), Welsh medd, Finnish mesi, Chinese (mì).

mead (usually uncountable, plural meads)

  1. (alcoholic beverages) An alcoholic drink fermented from honey and water.
    • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 47:
      "Just come in," said Mrs. Churchill, "and take one glass of my mead." / "No—not even such a golden promise tempts me. I am afraid that Lord Marchmont will be at home before me—and he is not yet accustomed to be kept waiting."
    • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 131:
      No one, then or now, wanted to drink the mead that came out of Odin's arse.
  2. (US) A drink composed of syrup of sarsaparilla or other flavouring extract, and water, and sometimes charged with carbon dioxide.

alcoholic drink

From Middle English mede (“meadow”), from Old English mǣd. Cognate with West Frisian miede, Mede, German Low German Meed, Dutch made.

mead (plural meads)

  1. (poetic) A meadow.
    • a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Dorinda”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, Second edition, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1971, page 693:
      Farewel ye crystal streams, that pass / Thro’ fragrant meads of verdant grass:
    • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. Moral.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 160:
      But any man that walks the mead, / In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find, / According as his humours lead, / A meaning suited to his mind.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXVIII, page 45:
      Four voices of four hamlets round, / From far and near, on mead and moor, / Swell out and fail, as if a door / Were shut between me and the sound […]

mead

  1. second-person plural imperative of mear

From Middle English mede, from Old English mǣd.

mead

  1. meadow