meed
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L17879 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /miːd/
noun
Etymology: 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 Meed (“rent”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌶𐌳𐍉 (mizdō, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”); further Ancient Greek μισθός (misthós, “wage”), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mĭzda, “reward”), Sanskrit मीळ्ह (mīḷhá), Sanskrit मीढ (mīḍhá), Avestan 𐬨𐬍𐬲𐬛𐬀 (mīžda).
- A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward; award.
“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.”
“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.”
- A gift; bribe.
- Merit; worth.
“[…]my meed hath got me fame:[…]”
“In any case, his life would be in ignominy and would be brief, and he would have lost irretrievably the meed of valour.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀdōn, from Proto-Germanic *mizdōną (“to reward”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with German Low German meden (“to hire, lease, rent”), German mieten (“to rent”).
- To reward; bribe.
- To deserve; merit.