Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian mede, Middle Dutch mede, meed, meede, meedt (Dutch mede, mee), Middle Low German medde, mēde, meit, meth, Old High German medo, met, meto, metu, mito (Middle High German met, mete, German Met), Old Icelandic mjǫðr (Icelandic mjöð, mjöður), Old Swedish miödher, mioþer (Swedish mjöd), Danish mjød, Gothic *midus (only attested in Greek transcription as μέδος, given by Priscus as the name of a drink used in place of wine at the Hunnish court a.d. 448) < the Indo-European base of Sanskrit madhu (neuter) honey, sweet drink, ancient Greek μέθυ wine, Early Irish mid mead (Old Welsh med, Welsh medd), Old Church Slavonic medŭ honey, mead, Lithuanian midus mead, medus honey. The word may have been originally a use as noun of an adjective meaning ‘sweet’; compare Sanskrit madhu (adjective). The Germanic word > post-classical Latin medus (6th cent.; from 11th cent. in British sources).The β. forms are probably partly from early Scandinavian and partly from Welsh medd . Compare also the near-synonymous but etymologically unrelated loan < Welsh metheglin n.; for possible confusion between the two words see quot. 1609 at metheglin n., quot. 1623 at sense 1aβ. , and the following:1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agric. (1687) 320 Meth, a small kind of Metheglin.1749 E. Synge Let. 25 July (1996) 142 Use as much of the Meth, as you please. Eng. Dial. Dict. notes use of the word in β. forms in Somerset, Cheshire, and Pembrokeshire.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian mēde (feminine; West Frisian miede ), Middle Dutch māde , mēde , maet , meet (feminine; Dutch regional made , maad , meed ), Middle Low German māde , mēde (feminine; German regional (Low German) Meed , Mede ), all in sense ‘meadow’, ultimately < the Germanic base of mow v.¹ Compare (in same sense, but with a different Germanic ablaut grade) Middle Dutch made (feminine; Dutch regional made (in Middle Dutch frequently falling together with māde as a result of lengthening in open syllables)), Old High German mato- (in the compound matoscrec grasshopper; Middle High German mate , matte (feminine), German (poetic and regional) Matte ), Old Swedish maþ (feminine; Swedish mad ), Old Danish math (Danish made ). Compare math n.¹ (a Verner's law variant with original root accent as opposed to suffix accent), and also meadow n.The w was dropped in the nominative singular in Old English, and retained in the other forms: accusative, genitive, and dative singular mǣdwe , nominative, accusative, and genitive plural mǣdwa , dative plural mǣdwum . Although the regular inflection is the more common, the oblique cases are sometimes found assimilated to the nominative singular, as genitive and dative singular mǣde , nominative plural mǣda . The rare late Old English and early Middle English forms mæð , með are perhaps by confusion with math n.¹ Attested also in compounds in Old English, as mǣdland meadowland (compare meadowland n.); compare Mead-month n.