English
meat
Meat comes from Middle English mete ‘food’, from Old English mete ‘food’, from Proto-Germanic *matiz ‘food’; the sense later narrowed to ‘flesh’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*matiz1‘food’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mati1‘food’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150mete1‘food’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mete1‘food’
- Englishearliest quotation 1526meat1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English meat
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “I was anhongred, and ye gave me meate. I…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*matizWiktionary, English meat‘food’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*matiWiktionary, English meat‘food’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150meteWiktionary, English meat‘food’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500meteWiktionary, English meat‘food’
- Englishearliest quotation 1526meatWiktionary, English meat. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1526, [William Tyndale, The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible): “I was anhongred, and ye gave me meate. I…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with meat, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- ‘to be wet’
through Proto-Germanic *matiz ‘food’
16 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The flesh (muscle tissue) of a killed animal used as food.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “meat”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *matiz / meat