different between meid vs meed

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Afrikaans meid, from Dutch meid. Doublet of maid.

Pronunciation

• (S Africa, UK) IPA^(key): /me?t/

Noun

meid (plural meide)

1. (South Africa, offensive) A young black woman. [from 20th c.]
   • 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage 1998, p. 113:

     The last time she heard Capt Stolz saying: ‘Come on, meid, speak up. Or do you want to die like Gordon Ngubene?’

Anagrams

• Demi, Diem, Dime, demi, demi-, dime, idem

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch meid (“girl”).

Noun

meid (plural meide)

1. (now offensive) A young Black woman.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch meit, variant of meget, from Old Dutch *megith, *magath, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs. Doublet of maagd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?i?t/
• Hyphenation: meid
• Rhymes: -?i?t
• Homophones: mijd, mijdt, mijt

Noun

meid f (plural meiden, diminutive meisje n or meiske n or meidje n)

1. girl, lass

2. maid

   Synonyms: bode, deerne, dienstbode, dienstmaagd

3. Commonly used as an address for female pets, especially female dogs.

Usage notes

• Use in the singular may connote fortitude, bravery or acting like a grown-up, but it may also connote vulgarity or subservience due to the meaning “maid”. These connotations are much weaker in the plural, which can be used neutrally with little regard for context.
• Use for adult women (and to a lesser degree for older adolescent girls) is often considered patronising, which is especially true of the diminutives.
• The diminutive meidje is uncommon; the regular diminutive is meisje along with its variants meiske and meisie.

Derived terms

• dienstmeid
• huismeid
• keukenmeid
• meis
• meisje

Anagrams

• idem

Middle English

Noun

meid

1. Alternative form of mede (“reward”)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

meid m (definite singular meiden, indefinite plural meidar, definite plural meidane)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 1901; superseded by mei

Veps

Pronoun

meid

1. partitive of mö

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /mi?d/
• Homophone: mead
• Rhymes: -i?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English meede, mede, from Old English m?d, meord, meard, meorþ (“meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mizd? (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *misd?éh?, from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), Low German mede (“payment, wages, reward”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic ???????????????????? (mizd?, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”), Ancient Greek ?????? (misthós, “wage”), Old Church Slavonic ????? (m?zda, “reward”), Sanskrit ????? (m??há), Sanskrit ??? (m??há), Avestan ????????????????????? (m?žda).

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.
   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     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.
   • 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 *m?dian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mizd?n? (“to reward”), from Proto-Indo-European *misd?- (“to pay”). Cognate with Middle Low German m?den (“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.

Anagrams

• Deem, Mede, deem, deme

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• mied (southern Moselle Franconian)
• möd (Ripuarian)

Etymology

From Old High German muodi, from Proto-Germanic *m?þijaz, West Germanic variant of *m?þaz.

Adjective

meed

1. (northern Moselle Franconian) tired

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?t

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

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