Where does “sweetmeat” come from?
Sweetmeat derives from Middle English swete mete, combining Old English swete (sweet) with mete (food), from Latin meta and ultimately Proto-Indo-European meh₂d- (wet, soft).
sweetmeat (English): A sweet delicacy; a confection
Definitions
- A sweet delicacy; a confection
Ancestry of “sweetmeat”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | meat | The flesh of an animal used as food; A type of... |
| 2 | Middle English | mete | Food, nourishment or comestibles; that which is... |
| 3 | Middle English | bake mete | Any kind of cooked food which has a pastry... |
| 4 | Middle English | baken | To bake; to cook in an oven; usually used of... |
| 5 | Old English | bacan | to bake |
| 6 | Proto-West Germanic | bakan | to bake |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | bakaną | to bake |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰeh₃g- | to bake, to roast, to fry |