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 蜜 (mì).
mead (usually uncountable, plural meads)
- (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.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 47:
- (US) A drink composed of syrup of sarsaparilla or other flavouring extract, and water, and sometimes charged with carbon dioxide.
alcoholic drink
Afrikaans: heuningbier
Bashkir: бал (bal)
Basque: ezti-ur
Classical Nahuatl: āyōneuctli
Crimean Tatar: bal
Estonian: mõdu
Faroese: mjøður m
Finnish: hunajaviini, sima (fi)
Georgian: თაფლუჭი (tapluč̣i)
Greek: υδρόμελι (el) n (ydrómeli)
Ancient: ὑδρόμελι n (hudrómeli)Irish: meá f
Macedonian: медо́вина f (medóvina)
Malagasy: betsantely (mg)
Manx: milljag f
Maori: pia honi
Middle English: mede
Nahuatl: aoctli
Nandi: kipketin
Old English: medu m
Old Irish: mid n
Pannonian Rusyn: медовка f (medovka)
Polish: miód pitny (pl) m, miód (pl)
Russian: мёд (пи́тный) m (mjod (pítnyj)), медову́ха (ru) f (medovúxa)
Scottish Gaelic: meadh m
Slovak: medovina f
Tagalog: agwamyel
Turkish: bal şarabı
Udmurt: мусур (musur)
Ukrainian: медовуха f (medovuxa)
Yiddish: מעד m (med)
bragget (“drink made from ale, honey & spices”)
ambrosia (noun)
From Middle English mede (“meadow”), from Old English mǣd. Cognate with West Frisian miede, Mede, German Low German Meed, Dutch made.
mead (plural meads)
- (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 […]
- 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:
mead
From Middle English mede, from Old English mǣd.
mead
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 56