Etymograph

English

metayer

Metayer comes from French métayer ‘sharecropper, metayer’, from Latin medius ‘middle, half’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *me ‘near, by, with’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*me1‘near, by, with’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*médʰyos2‘between’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*meðios2‘middle’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmedius3‘middle, half’
  5. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmedietārius3
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400moitoier3
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentmétayer4‘sharecropper, metayer’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1829metayer4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin medius
  3. 3 Wiktionary, French métayer
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English metayer
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1829, The Foreign Quarterly Review: “The metayer furnishes his labour, his ignorance, and his…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meWiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos‘near, by, with’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*médʰyosWiktionary, Latin medius‘between’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*meðiosWiktionary, Latin medius‘middle’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmediusWiktionary, French métayer‘middle, half’
  5. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmedietāriusWiktionary, French métayer
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400moitoierWiktionary, French métayer
  7. Frenchc. 1600–presentmétayerWiktionary, English metayer‘sharecropper, metayer’
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1829metayerWiktionary, English metayer. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1829, The Foreign Quarterly Review: “The metayer furnishes his labour, his ignorance, and his…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos ‘between’

media, mid, midst, maidan, meso, 25 more

through Proto-Italic *meðios ‘middle’

medallion, 16 more

through Latin medius ‘middle, half’

mean, medium, medal, median, demi, mediation, mediator, medial, mediate, milieu, mezzanine, moiety, medulla, medio, moyen, intermezzo, 17 more

Today it means

noun One who cultivates land for a share (usually half) of its yield, receiving stock, tools, and seed from the landlord.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “metayer”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos, Latin medius, French métayer. 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-Indo-European *me / metayer

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