| 释义 |
▪ I. mead1|miːd|
Forms: α. 1 medo, meodu, 3–7 mede, 4 meed, meode, 5 med, meyde, 6 meade, 6–7 Sc. meid, 6– mead. β. 3–4 meth, 4–5 meeth, 4–6 methe, 6 meedth, 6–7 meathe, 6–8 meath.
[Com. Teut. and Aryan: OE. meodu str. masc. = OFris., MLG., MDu. mede (Du. mede, mee), OHG. metu, mitu (MHG. mete, met, mod.G. met), ON. miǫð-r (Da. miød, Sw. mjöd), Gothic *midu-s (not recorded exc. in Gr. transcription as µέδος, given by Priscus as the name at the Hunnish court a.d. 448 for the drink which there took the place of wine):—OTeut. *medu-z:—OAryan *medhu-s; cf. Skr. mádhu neut., honey, sweet drink, OSl. medŭ honey, wine, Lith. midù-s mead, medùs honey, Gr. µέθυ wine, OIrish mid, genit. meda, Welsh medd. The word may have been orig. an elliptical use of an adj. meaning ‘sweet’ (= Skr. mádhu adj.).
The βforms may be partly from ON. and partly from Welsh; with regard to the latter cf. the adoption from Welsh of the synonymous (but unrelated) metheglin.]
a. An alcoholic liquor made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water: also called metheglin.
The distinction alleged in quot. 1609 (under β) was prob. merely a figment of the writer's own.
α Beowulf 604 (Gr.) Gæþ eft, se þe mot, to medo modiᵹ. a1000Riddles xxi. 12 (Gr.) Þær hy meodu drincað. c1205Lay. 6928 Ah longe leouede here Cherin, muchel he dronk mede [c 1275 meþ] and win. 1390Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 43, xxiiij barellis de meed. c1460Towneley Myst. xxviii. 111 It is swetter then med. 1483Cath. Angl. 232/2 Meyde (A. Methe), idromellum, medus, medo. 1625K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. xviii. 49 By occasion of their Mead, they fell into talke of Bees. 1712Addison Spect. No. 383 ⁋6 A Masque..asked him if he would drink a Bottle of Mead with her? 1767H. Glasse Cookery App. 353 How to make mead. Ibid. 374 To make white mead. 1891T. Hardy Tess II. 62, I found the mead..extremely alcoholic.
βc1275[see α]. c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 194 He sente hire pyment Meeth and spyced Ale. c1449Pecock Repr. i. xx. 121 Without sidir and wijn and meeth, men and wommen myȝte lyue ful long. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 58 b, They say they will be verie pleasant, if the seede be steeped in meedth. 1609C. Butler Fem. Mon. (1634) 162 Meth or Hydromel is of two sorts, the weaker and the stronger (Mede and Methæglen). a1674Milton Hist. Mosc. i. Wks. 1851 VIII. 480 Thir Drink is better, being sundry sorts of Meath. 1747Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 463 He begs a thousand acknowledgements to you for all favours, particularly the meath.
b. transf. (a) poet. nonce-use (see quot.). (b) Now applied to several made beverages, esp. U.S. ‘a sweet drink charged with carbonic gas, and flavored with some syrup, as sarsaparilla’ (Cent. Dict. 1890).
1667Milton P.L. v. 345 For drink the Grape She crushes, inoffensive moust, and meathes From many a berrie.
c. attrib. and Comb., chiefly arch. or Hist. in terms relating to Teutonic antiquities, as mead-horn; mead-bench (OE. medubęnc), a seat at a feast when mead was drunk; mead-hall (OE. meduheall), a banqueting hall. Also † mead-inn, an inn where mead is the beverage sold; mead-wine, a home-made ‘wine’ prepared from mead.
1860Hook Lives Abps. I. v. 181 Nobles left their halls and the *mead-bench. 1959A. G. Brodeur Art of Beowulf 16 A mead-bench is a seat in a royal hall, where the dispensing of good drink symbolizes the warm relationship between lord and retainer.
1881Green Making of Eng. 173 The leader..gave them..a seat in his *mead hall. 1903L. F. Anderson Anglo-Saxon Scop 36 Personal valour and prowess on the field of battle, courage.., hardihood.., these were the all-absorbing topics of conversation in the mead-hall. 1968E. B. Irving Reading of Beowulf v. 242 The clustering of the clan family in the lighted mead-hall.
1870Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 391 Shun the *mead-horn.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. ii. ii. (1651) 74 Be merry together..as our modern Muscovites do in their *Mede-Inns.
1804–6Syd. Smith Mor. Philos. (1850) 248 Every clergyman's wife makes *mead-wine of the honey.
▪ II. mead2 Now poet. and dial.|miːd|
Forms: 1 mǽd, Anglian méd, 3 med, 3–6 mede, 4 maied, 4, 6 meed(e, 5 Sc. meide, 5–6 Sc. meid, 6 mydde, 6–7 meade, 6– mead.
[OE. mǽd str. fem.:—OTeut. type *mæ̂dwâ: see meadow.
By phonetic law the w was dropped in the nom. sing. in OE., and retained in the other forms. Although the regular inflexion is the more common, the oblique cases and pl. are sometimes found assimilated to the nom. sing., as gen. and dat. mǽde (dat. also méda as from a u-stem), pl. mǽda.]
= meadow 1.
c1000in Napier O.E. Glosses 5/138 Prata, i. uiriditates, mæda. a1250Owl & Night. 438 Þe blostme ginneþ springe and sprede Beoþe ine treo and ek on mede. c1290Becket 1722 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 156 In ane Mede þat men cleopiez ȝuyte ‘þe traitores mede’. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 11255 Sir Ion giffard fram brumesfeld þuder sone com To þe castle med wiþoute toun. c1386Chaucer Prol. 89 Embrouded was he, as it were a mede Al ful of fresshe floures, whyte and rede. 1508Dunbar Tua mariit Wemen 514 And all remuffit the myst, and the meid smellit. 1551Turner Herbal i. B v, The second [kind of garlick] groweth in myddes and feldes in euery cuntre. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 195 Riuers sweete along the meedes. 1605Shakes. Lear i. i. 66 Of all these bounds..With plenteous Riuers, and wide-skirted Meades We make thee Lady. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xii. 160 A goodly mead, which men there call the Hide. 1713C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 292 The loos'd Horse..Comes slowly grazing thro' th' adjoining Meads. 1799W. Tooke View Russian Emp. I. 73 Artificial meads, as not deemed necessary, are unusual. 1812Brackenridge Views Louisiana (1814) 105 These natural meads. 1896A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad v, Oh may I squire you round the meads And pick you posies gay?
†b. Meadow-land; = meadow 1 b. Obs.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 3887 In þe oþer half beþ grete wodes lese & mede al so. 1455Rolls of Parlt. V. 313/1, vii acres of Mede, liggyng in the Mede beside the Brigge. 1670Conn. Col. Rec. (1852) II. 133 This Court grants Mr. Benjamin Fenn, two hundred and fifty acres of land, whereof there may be thirty of mead.
c. attrib. and Comb., as † mead-gavel, a rent for meadow land; mead grass, meadow grass, esp. Poa pratensis; mead ground, meadow land; mead-month, quasi-arch., an alleged OE. name for July; † mead-rattle, app. ground ivy or speedwell; † mead silver (see quot.).
1235–53Rentalia Glaston. (Somerset Rec. Soc.) 54 Hii qui solvunt *Medgavel.
1778W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric., Digest 66 Cut Clover early,—*Meadgrass late.
1453in Trevelyan Papers (Camden) 22 With viij acr. of *meade grounde. 1571in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 336 Fyve acres of meade ground lying in Botley meade.
1681W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 584 In *mede month; Hay time. 1714J. Fortescue-Aland Fortescue's Abs. & Lim. Mon. Notes 116 July was called Mæde-monað, Mead-Month. 1849Lytton K. Arthur viii. xiv, Roved the same pastures when the Mead-month smil'd.
c1450Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 28/1 Camepiteos..uel germandria maior..angl. *mederatele.
1778Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Cobham, The parishioners pay no tithe-hay, but a composition..of 1d. an acre, which is called *Mead Silver.
▪ III. mead
obs. form of meed n. |