Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/255

Mei according to  meus, mihi,  μέ,  ma, common to the Aryan division. Further details belong to grammar.  ,, ‘false oath, perjury,’ from the  meincit,  meincid, ; corresponding to  mênêth,  meineed,  mânâþ,  meineiðr, , ‘perjury.’ It is the common  word for ‘false oath’; only  *main-aiþs is wanting. The first component is an (or rather an  used as a ),  and  mein, ‘false, deceitful,’ as  and  ‘falsity, injustice, outrage.’ In  ein meiner was also used for ein meineit;   mên,  mân,, ‘falsity, crime, outrage,’  mein,  ‘damage, injury, misfortune’ (allied to meinn, , ‘hurtful’). gamains) does not seem to be directly akin, although mein, ‘outrage,’ may have been the source of the bad sense attached to the modern word. They are, however, finally connected with  words for, ‘exchange’ (  and. ), maínas, ‘exchange,’  měna, ‘change, alteration’ ( nút, ‘to exchange’). In that case  commûnis and  gamains (see ) would mean  ‘being on a footing cf barter.’ It is probably not related to  mentîri.  ,, ‘to think, opine, mean,’ from  meinen, ‘to direct one's thoughts to, have in view, aim at, be affected towards a person, love,’  meinen, meinan, ‘to mean, think, say, declare’;   mênian,  meenen,  mœ̂nan,  to mean (to this  mœ̂nan,  to moan, are supposed to be allied);  *mainjan is wanting. The most closely allied term is  měnja, měniti, ‘to mean.’ The latter, as well as West   (assuming mainjan from mênjan)'is usually rightly connected with the man, ‘to think’ ( , , and ). The meaning ‘to love’ appears only in , but with the revival of  literature it has been introduced into  poetry. —  ,, ‘opinion, meaning,’ from meinung,  meinunga, , ‘thought, disposition, view.’   ',, ', , ‘mash,’ from meisch, , ‘grape mash,’ also ‘mead, drink mixed with honey’; allied to  mash, which by chance not recorded in  and. It is very likely related by gradation to, if the latter, as is probable, is a genuine  word;   mâschien and the   to mash. With this agrees the further assumption that meisch, ‘mead,’ is  allied to  mězga, ‘tree-juice’ (for  zg,  to  sk, see  and ).   ,, ‘titmouse,’ from the  meise,  meisa, ;   mees,  mâse ( only in titmouse, a corruption of tit-moase;  â is  to  oa);  meisingr, , with a suffix ‘titmouse.’ A term peculiar to , which passed also into  ( mésange, ‘titmouse,’ formed from  meisingr?); origin obscure. Only a few names of birds can be traced beyond the group (, , , and ).  , and, ‘most, mostly,’ from  meist, , ‘greatest, most,’ , ‘mostly, at best, very specially’ (a  of the  ,  mêr);   meist,  maists, from the  posit. mihhil, mikils, ‘great.’  ma-ists has the old  suffix ist like  bat-ists,  beȥȥ-ist; from the stem ma- the   ma-iza is also formed. The forms of comparison seemed to be based on the  stem mêrs,  mâ-ri, ‘projecting.’  also  mêst,  meest,  mœ̂st (mâst),  most.  ,, ‘master, chief, leader,’ from meister, , ‘learned poet, meister-sänger (poets who were members of guilds), mayor, burgomaster,’  meistar;  mêstar,  meester,  mœgster. Borrowed from magister, which in  was applied to numerous offices. further maestro,  maître,  master, mister.   ,, ‘chisel,’ from meiȥel,  meiȥil, , ‘chisel, tool for dressing and chipping’; allied to  meiȥan,  meiȥen, ‘to hew, cut,’  maitan, ‘to hew, hew off’; thus too  meitell, , ‘chisel,’ allied to meita, ‘to cut.’ All these belong to a  root mat, ‘to hew,’ which has been connected with the  root mat, ‘to hew,’ in. also mattock.    ( molten),, ‘orache’ (a plant), from the  and  mëlde, and with a different gradation mulde, molte, ,  mola, mulda (muolhta is incorrectly written for molta), ; of