different between meagre vs eagre

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mi???/
• Rhymes: -i???(?)
• Hyphenation: mea?gre

Etymology 1

From Middle French maigre.

Noun

meagre (plural meagres)

1. Argyrosomus regius, an edible fish of the family Sciaenidae.
   • 1986, A. Wysoki?ski, The Living Marine Resources of the Southeast Atlantic, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 178, page 48,

     Among more valuable species some of them are worth mentioning, especially littoral forms as: meagres and other croakers (Sciaenidae), grunters (Pomadasyidae), threadfins (Polynemidae), groupers (Serranidae), snappers (Lutjanidae) […] .

   • 2008, Arturo Morales-Muñes, Eufrasia Roselló-Izquierdo, 11: Twenty Thousand Years of Fishing in the Strait, Torben C. Rick, Jon M. Erlandson (editors), Human Impacts on Ancient Marine Ecosystems: A Global Perspective, page 261,

     It is striking that these represent meagres (Argyrosomus regius), a species never mentioned in classical texts.

   • 2011, John S. Lucas, Paul C. Southgate, Aquaculture: Farming Aquatic Animals and Plants, unnumbered page,

     Meagres (Argyrosomus regius, 230 cm, 103 kg) have been raised mainly in Spain, France and Italy.

Synonyms

• (Argyrosomus regius): salmon-basse, shade-fish, stone basse

Hypernyms

• (fish of family Sciaenidae): croaker, drum, drumfish, hardhead, sciaenid

Derived terms

• brown meagre (Sciaena umbra)

Translations

Further reading

• Argyrosomus regius on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Argyrosomus regius on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Argyrosomus regius on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Etymology 2

From Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, macrum, from Proto-Indo-European *mh??rós. Cognate with Old English mæ?er (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”).

Alternative forms

• meager (US)

Adjective

meagre (comparative meagrer, superlative meagrest) (British spelling) (Canadian spelling, common)

1. Having little flesh; lean; thin.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 1, 1843, William Shakespeare, Samuel Weller Singer (notes), Charles Symmons (life), The Dramatic Works and Poems, Volume 2, page 462,

     […] meagre were his looks; / Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:

2. Deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent

   Synonyms: paltry, scanty, inadequate

   • 1871, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic: A History, Volume 1, page 144,

     His education had been but meagre.
3. (set theory) Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.
4. (mineralogy) Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).

Derived terms

• meagrely
• meagreness

Descendants

• Jamaican Creole: mawga

Translations

Verb

meagre (third-person singular simple present meagres, present participle meagring, simple past and past participle meagred)

1. (transitive) To make lean.
   • 1862, Robert Thomas Wilson, Herbert Randolph (editor), Life of General Sir Robert Wilson, page 275,

     I am meagred to a skeleton; my nose is broiled to flaming heat, and I am suffering the greatest inconvenience from the loss of my baggage which I fear the enemy have taken with my servant at Konigsberg.

Anagrams

• Graeme, meager

English

Etymology 1

See eager.

Adjective

eagre (comparative more eagre, superlative most eagre)

1. Obsolete form of eager.
   • 1614, Walter Raleigh, The History of the World, Book III., Chapter VII., page #66:

     How?oeuer it were, the Lacedæmonians being no le??e wearied of the warre, than the Athenians were eagre to pur?ue it, the one obtained their ea?e, and the other the execution and honor which they de?ired : for all the Greekes (tho?e of Peloponme?us excepted) willingly ?ubiected them?elues to the commandment of the Athenians which was both beginning of their greatne??e in that pre?ent age, and of their ruine in the next ?ucceeding.

Etymology 2

Not attested in Middle English; either from Old English ?agor (“water, sea”) or Old Norse ægir (“sea, ocean”), however, both possibilities fail to show the phonological outcome one would expect.

Alternative forms

• aegir, eger, egre, eygre

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e???(?)/, /?i???(?)/
• Rhymes: -e???(r), -i???(r)

Noun

eagre (plural eagres)

1. a tidal bore

Translations

Synonyms

• tidal bore, bore

References

• “eagre”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000

Anagrams

• Eager, aeger, agree, eager, geare, æger