mead

See also: Mead and méad

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: mēd, IPA^(key): /miːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːd
• Homophone: meed

Etymology 1

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”).

Noun

mead (usually uncountable, plural meads)

1. 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.

2. (US) A drink composed of syrup of sarsaparilla or other flavouring extract, and water, and sometimes charged with carbon dioxide.

Alternative forms

• meath, meathe, meeth (all obsolete)

Derived terms

• black mead
• mead bench
• mead cup
• meaded
• meadery
• mead hall
• mead moon
• red mead

 

Translations

alcoholic drink

• Afrikaans: heuningbier
• Armenian: մեղրագինի (hy) (meġragini)
• Bashkir: бал (bal)
• Basque: ezti-ur
• Bulgarian: медови́на (bg) f (medovína)
• Catalan: hidromel (ca) m, aiguamel (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蜂蜜酒 (zh) (fēngmìjiǔ)

• Classical Nahuatl: āyōneuctli
• Crimean Tatar: bal
• Czech: medovina (cs) f
• Danish: mjød (da) c
• Dutch: mede (nl) f
• Esperanto: medo (eo)
• Estonian: mõdu
• Faroese: mjøður m
• Finnish: hunajaviini, sima (fi)
• French: hydromel (fr) m, chouchen (fr) m
• Galician: augamel m, melgacho (gl) m
• Georgian: თაფლუჭი (tapluč̣i)
• German: Met (de) m, Honigwein (de) m
• Greek: υδρόμελι (el) n (ydrómeli)

  Ancient: ὑδρόμελι n (hudrómeli)

• Hebrew: תֶּמֶד‎ (he) m (témed)
• Hungarian: mézsör (hu)
• Icelandic: mjöður (is) m
• Ido: mielaquo (io)
• Irish: meá f
• Italian: idromele m
• Japanese: はちみつ酒 (はちみつしゅ, hachimitsushu), ミード (mīdo)
• Korean: 꿀술 (kkulsul), 밀주(蜜酒) (ko) (milju)
• Latin: mulsa f, hydromel m
• Latvian: medus (lv) m
• Lithuanian: midus (lt) m
• Macedonian: медо́вина f (medóvina)
• Malagasy: betsantely (mg)
• Manx: milljag f
• Maori: pia honi
• Middle English: mede
• Nahuatl: aoctli
• Nandi: kipketin
• Norman: baûtchet m (Jersey), vitoué m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mjød m

  Nynorsk: mjød m

• Old English: medu m
• Old Irish: mid n
• Persian: مل‎ (fa) (mol)
• Polish: miód pitny (pl) m
• Portuguese: hidromel (pt) m
• Romanian: hidromel (ro) m, mied (ro)
• Russian: мёд (пи́тный) m (mjód (pítnyj)), медову́ха (ru) f (medovúxa)
• Sanskrit: मधु (sa) n (madhu)
• Scottish Gaelic: meadh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: медовина f

  Roman: medovina (sh) f

• Slovak: medovina f
• Slovene: medica (sl) f
• Spanish: aguamiel (es) f, hidromiel (es) m
• Swedish: mjöd (sv) n
• Tagalog: agwamyel
• Turkish: bal şarabı
• Udmurt: мусур (musur)
• Ukrainian: медовуха f (medovuxa)
• Volapük: mielavin, meed
• Welsh: medd (cy) m
• Yiddish: מעד‎ m (med)

See also

• bragget (“drink made from ale, honey & spices”)
• ambrosia (noun)
• mead on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English mede (“meadow”), from Old English mǣd. Cognate with West Frisian miede, Mede, German Low German Meed, Dutch made.

Noun

mead (plural meads)

1. (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:

   • c. 1817, John Keats, Hither, hither, love -:

     Hither, hither, love — / ‘Tis a shady mead — / Hither, hither, love! / Let us feed and feed!

   • 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 […]

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

     'We must overhaul that mead,' he resumed; 'this mustn't continny!'

   • 1920, H. P. Lovecraft, The Doom that Came to Sarnath:

     There ran little streams over bright pebbles, dividing meads of green and gardens of many hues, [...].

Derived terms

• Temple Meads
• Thamesmead

Anagrams

• ADEM, ADME, Adem, Dame, Edam, MEDA, dame, made

Spanish

Verb

mead

1. second-person plural imperative of mear

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English mede, from Old English mǣd.

Noun

mead

1. meadow

References

• Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 56