Etymograph

English

meal

Meal comes from Middle English mel ‘a time, occasion or event’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-‘to measure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mēlą‘time’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*māl‘time’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150mǣl‘measure’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mel‘a time’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606meal

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-‘to measure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mēlą‘time’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*māl‘time’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150mǣl‘measure’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mel‘a time’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606meal

Earliest quotation: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “Ere we will eate our Meale in feare, and…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’

month, moon, moral, measure, sunny, dimension, meter, moody, immense, metric, metre, meta, mesa, menstrual, asymmetry, commensurate, madder, mensa, metrology, firman, moodiness, mete, metis, metra, menses, 65 more

through Middle English mel ‘a time, occasion or event’

mell

Another origin of meal

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*melh₂-‘to grind, mill’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*melwą‘meal, flour’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*melu‘ground corn, meal, flour’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150melu‘meal, flour’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mele‘Flour, especially that of wheat’
  6. Englishtodaymeal

Another origin of meal

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mey-‘to soil’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mailą‘wrinkle, spot’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150māl‘spot, mark, blemish’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mole
  5. Englishtodaymeal

Variation of mole (compare Scots mail), from Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl, mǣl (‘spot, mark, blemish’), from Proto-Germanic *mailą (‘wrinkle, spot’), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (‘to soil’).

Today it means

noun Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- / meal

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