Etymology: < Middle French, French maigre (1393), use as noun of Middle French maigre meagre adj.; according to Cotgrave (1611), ‘the French doe tearme him thus, not because he is leane, but because by the whitenesse of his flesh he seems so; howsoeuer, and howsoeuer he be dressed, he is reasonable good meat’. N.E.D. (1904) enters this under maigre and gives the pronunciation as (mēⁱ·gəɹ) /ˈmeɪɡə/. After a period of coexistence, the anglicized form seems to have supplanted the original French form, presumably under the influence of meagre adj. For the megyr of Promp. Parv. ( < post-classical Latin megarus mackerel), see Middle Eng. Dict. s.v. megir n.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman megre, meigre, meger and Middle French, French maigre (early 13th cent. in Old French; late 12th cent. as meigre ) < classical Latin macr- , macer , related to classical Latin maciēs leanness (see macies n.) and cognate with ancient Greek μακρός long (see macro- comb. form), μακεδνός tall, slender, μῆκος length; the synonymous Germanic base of Old English mæger, Middle Dutch māger, māgher (Dutch mager), Middle Low German māger, Old High German magar, mager (Middle High German mager, meger, German mager), Old Icelandic magr (Icelandic magur), Old Swedish magher (Swedish mager), Danish mager is probably also < the same Indo-European base, rather than a loan < Latin into Germanic. Compare Old Occitan magre (12th–13th cent.), maigre (13th cent., < French), Spanish magro (13th cent.), Portuguese magro (13th cent.), Italian magro (13th cent.), Romanian macru.Recorded early in England in surnames, though it is unclear whether these are to be interpreted as Middle English or Anglo-Norman; compare Gaufridus le Megre (1179), Radulfus Megremeins (1199), Ricardus le Meeger (1333), etc. With sense A. 2a compare use in French of a piece of writing or of a style (c1265 in Old French). With sense A. 4 compare use in French in similar senses from the late 18th cent. With sense A. 3 compare also maigre adj. With sense B. 2 compare French maigre , noun (15th cent. in Middle French). The Scots form maugre shows unexplained development of the vowel (compare the form maugre in quot. a1640 at sense A. 1b, although this is more likely to be a misprint). The following example, cited by Sc. National Dict. s.v. Maugre, is probably an error for maigre adj. 1:1763 in R. S. Rait Univ. Aberdeen (1895) 206 That on the ‘maugre’ days, the Oeconomist endeavour to introduce as much variety of vegetable diet as he can.

Etymology: < meagre adj. Compare Anglo-Norman megrir, Old French, Middle French, French maigrir to make thin, to grow thin (late 12th cent.). N.E.D. (1906) gives the pronunciation as (mī·gəɹ) /ˈmiːɡə(r)/.