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meander [meander 词源字典]: meander: [16] The word meander comes from the name of an actual river, the Maeander (now known as the Büyük Menderes), which flows through Turkey into the Aegean sea. It was famous in ancient times for its winding course, and so Greek maíandros came to be used as a generic term for ‘winding course’. The word passed into English via Latin maeander, and was turned into a verb in the 17th century.
[meander etymology, meander origin, 英语词源]
measles: measles: [14] Measles means literally ‘spots, blemishes’. The word was originally borrowed from Middle Dutch māsel ‘blemish’, which went back to a prehistoric Germanic base *mas- ‘spot, blemish, excrescence’. The earliest English form of the word was thus maseles, and the change to measles (which began in the 14th century) may have been due to association with the now obsolete mesel ‘leper’, a descendant of Latin miser ‘wretched, unfortunate’ (source of English misery).
measure: measure: [13] The distant ancestor of English measure was the Indo-European base *ma-, *me- ‘measure’. This has generated a wide range of often unexpected English progeny, including meal ‘repast’, month, and moon. Measure itself comes from an extension of the base, *mat-, *met-, from which was derived the Latin verb mētīrī ‘measure’.

Its past participial stem mēnsformed the basis of the noun mēnsūra ‘measure’, which passed into English via Old French mesure as measure. From the same Latin stem come commensurate [17], dimension [14], and immense [15] (literally ‘unmeasurable’); and other related forms that go back to the base *mat-, *met- (or *med-) include mate ‘friend’, meat, meditate, meet ‘suitable’, mete, mode, moderate, modest, and modify.
=> commensurate, dimension, immense, mate, meal, meat, meditate, meet, mete, metre, mode, moderate, modest, month, moon
meat: meat: [OE] Etymologically, meat is a ‘portion of food measured out’. The word’s ultimate source is Indo-European *mat-, *met- ‘measure’, which also lies behind English measure. This produced a prehistoric Germanic *matiz, which by the time it passed into Old English as mete had broadened out in meaning from ‘portion of food’ to simply ‘food’.

That is still the meaning of its Germanic relatives, Swedish mat and Danish mad, and it survives for English meat in certain fixed contexts, such as meat and drink and What’s one man’s meat is another man’s poison, but for the most part the more specific ‘flesh used as food’, which began to emerge in the 14th century, now dominates.
=> measure
medal: medal: see metal
meddle: meddle: see mix
medial: medial: see medium
median: median: see medium
mediate: mediate: see medium
medicine: medicine: [13] Latin medērī ‘heal’ underlies all the English ‘medical’-words (it was formed from the base *med-, which also produced English remedy). From it was derived medicus ‘doctor’, which has given English medical [17]; and on medicus in turn were based Latin medicīna ‘practice of medicine’ (source of English medicine) and medicārī ‘give medicine to’ (source of English medicament [14] and medicate [17]). The informal medico [17] comes via Italian.
=> remedy
medieval: medieval: see medium
mediocre: mediocre: [16] Etymologically, mediocre means ‘halfway up a mountain’. It comes from Latin mediocris ‘of middle height, in a middle state’, which was formed from medius ‘middle’ (source of English medium) and ocris ‘rough stony mountain’.
=> medium
medium: medium: [16] Latin medius meant ‘middle’ (it came from an Indo-European source that also produced English mid and middle). Its neuter form, used as a noun, has given English medium, but it has made several other contributions to the language, including mean ‘average’, medial [16], median [16], mediate [16] (and its derivatives immediate [16] – etymologically ‘acting directly, without any mediation’ – and intermediate [17]), medieval [19] (literally ‘of the Middle Ages’), mediocre, meridian, mitten, and moiety.

Its Italian descendant is mezzo ‘half’, which has given English intermezzo [19], mezzanine [18], mezzosoprano [18], and mezzotint [18].
=> immediate, intermezzo, mean, median, mediate, middle, mitten
medley: medley: see mix
meek: meek: see muck
meerschaum: meerschaum: see scum
meet: meet: [OE] English has two words meet, although one of them has almost died out. The verb comes from a prehistoric Germanic *gamōtjan, a derivative of the noun *mōtam ‘meeting’ (from which English gets moot). Its Germanic relatives include Dutch moeten, Swedish mōta, and Danish møde. The adjective, ‘suitable’, originally meant literally ‘fitting’, and goes back via Old English gemǣte to the prehistoric Germanic base *mǣt-, *met- ‘measure’ (source also of the verb mete ‘measure’ [OE], as in mete out, and related ultimately to English measure).
=> moot; measure, mete
megalith: megalith: see lithograph
melancholy: melancholy: [14] Etymologically, melancholy means ‘black gall’. The word comes via Old French melancolie and late Latin melancholia from Greek melagkholíā, a compound formed from mélās ‘black’ (source also of English melanin [19] and melanoma [19]) and kholé ‘bile’ (a relative of English gall). This ‘black bile’ was one of the four bodily substances or ‘humours’ whose relative preponderance, according to medieval medical theory, determined a person’s physical and mental state. Excess of black bile was thought to cause depression – hence the modern meaning of melancholy.
=> gall, melanoma
mêlée: mêlée: see mix