meek
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English meek, meke, meoc, unknown origin, likely related to Old English smēag (“subtle, stealthy, etc.”) and smūgan and possibly a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft; meek”), from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *mūkaz (“soft; supple”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk- (“slick, slippery; to slip”).
Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk (“soft”), Norwegian Bokmål myk (“soft”), and Danish myg (“supple”), Dutch muik (“soft, overripe”), dialectal German mauch (“dry and decayed, rotten”), Mauche (“malanders”). Compare as well Welsh mwyth (“soft, weak”), Latin ēmungō (“to blow one's nose”), Tocharian A muk- (“to let go, give up”), Lithuanian mùkti (“to slip away from”), Old Church Slavonic мъчати (mŭčati, “to chase”), Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit मुञ्चति (muñcati, “to release, let loose”).
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /miːk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /mik/
- Rhymes: -iːk
Adjective
editmeek (comparative meeker, superlative meekest)
- Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:5:
- Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth.
- 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 8”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else...
- Submissive, dispirited, cowed.
- 1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:
- What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten.
Synonyms
edit- See also Thesaurus:humble
Derived terms
editTranslations
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Verb
editmeek (third-person singular simple present meeks, present participle meeking, simple past and past participle meeked)
Translations
edit- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/iːk
- Rhymes:English/iːk/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- American English
- en:Personality