Meat
/miːt/noun
Animal flesh used as food.
Did you know?In Old English, *mǣte* could mean any kind of food, and only later did English trap it inside the flesh-on-your-plate meaning we use today.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*matiz
“food; that which is eaten”
Old English
OE
mǣte
“food, nourishment”
Middle English
ME
mete
“food; provisions”
14th–15th Century
English
meat
“food in general, then especially flesh as food”
Modern English
English
meat
“animal flesh used as food”