Word of the Day

: February 6, 2014

meed

noun MEED

What It Means

: a fitting return or recompense

meed in Context

For his valor displayed on the field of battle, the knight was rewarded with his due meed of praise and gratitude from the king.

"At the time, and thanks to Berger, it won its meed of attention because it was worth lots of money." - From an article by Christopher Hitchens in The Times Literary Supplement, October 5-10, 1990

Did You Know?

The word "meed" is one of the oldest terms in our language, having been part of English for about 1,000 years. An early form of the word appeared in the Old English classic Beowulf, and it can be found in works by literary luminaries including Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, Alexander Pope, and Ben Jonson. Its Old English form, "mēd," is akin to terms found in the ancestral versions of many European languages, including Old High German, Old Swedish, and ancient Greek. In Modern English, the venerable "meed" is most likely to be found in poetic contexts.