371
We be blind to our own language
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
ublock-origin once again with the witty comebacks
Nope. I just looked it up, they're homonyms that come from different root words
Ok this doing my head in a bit.
Meal is short for mealtide, not used in English anymore but is in other Germanic languages. And etymologists seem to be uncertain if the meal part relates to time or milling. But that seems weird to me because then mealtide would literally mean something like times-time.
Edit: the two definitions of meal seem to stem from the same word. Hitting/striking wheat is done in times.
I'll use Dutch to clarify since English doesn't have the time definition anymore.
Ik sla het tarwe niet één maal, niet twee maal maar vijftien maal. I hit the wheat not once, not twice but fifteen times.
Na het enkele malen te slaan konden we het malen in de molen. After hitting it a few times we could mill it in the mill.
En toen hadden we meel. And then we had meal.
I hope that somewhat makes it clear.
I'll use Dutch to clarify
!brandnewsentence
Stroopwafel een eind op vent!
Zeg makker...
The best German etymology website considers “mal” [time, instance] to be the root of Mahl(zeit) [meal(time)]. Apparently mahlen is unrelated? My mind is also blown.
“Time time” is a wild thing to call meals, but I guess we know what the focus was.
Yeah, but I think this has been though "measure" and it makes sense to get measure from time.
time
Ah yes!
“Mille Bornes, French for a thousand milestones, referring to the distance markers on many French roads, is a French designer card game.”
Play here but I remembered a better color version that was more modern
come from different root words
That page lists two definitions for meal and the second one is literally "the edible part of ground grain". So it likely refers to grinding (as in with your teeth while eating). Also makes more sense because otherwise "mealtime" would mean "timetime".
“meat” is descended from a Germanic word that just meant food, which is still evident in cognates in other languages (i.e. “mad” in Danish) and archaic words like “sweetmeats”
From what Germanic word would that be?
I currently can only think of Met (honey wine (sorry,German wiki)
"From Middle English mete, from Old English mete (“food”), from Proto-West Germanic *mati, from Proto-Germanic *matiz (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to drip, ooze; grease, fat”). Cognate with West Frisian mete, Old Saxon meti, Old High German maz (“food”), Icelandic matur, Swedish mat, Danish mad, Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍃 (mats).
A -ja- derivation from the same base is found in Middle Dutch and Middle Low German met (“lean pork”), from which Dutch met (“minced pork”) and German Mett (“minced meat”) derive, respectively. Compare also Old Irish mess (“animal feed”) and Welsh mes (“acorns”), English mast (“fodder for swine and other animals”), which are probably from the same root."
From Wiktionary.
Thanks!
See also “corn” (maize)
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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