different between meid vs mend

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 form removed with the spelling reform of 1901; superseded by mei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

Etymology

From Middle English menden, by apheresis for amenden (“to amend”); see amend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Noun

mend (plural mends)

1. A place, as in clothing, which has been repaired by mending.
2. The act of repairing.

Derived terms

• on the mend

Translations

Verb

mend (third-person singular simple present mends, present participle mending, simple past and past participle mended)

1. (transitive) To repair, as anything that is torn, broken, defaced, decayed, or the like; to restore from partial decay, injury, or defacement.

2. (transitive) To alter for the better; to set right; to reform; hence, to quicken; as, to mend one's manners or pace.
   • 1685, William Temple, Of Gardens

3. (transitive) To help, to advance, to further; to add to.
4. (intransitive) To grow better; to advance to a better state; to become improved.

Derived terms

• least said, soonest mended
• mend one's pace

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:repair

Translations

Related terms

Further reading

• mend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• mend at OneLook Dictionary Search

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?nt/

Noun

mend

1. genitive plural of menda