4 thoughts on “hyge-mēðe”

1. If it were possible, I would like to know more about how the language developed and when these words became replaced, and also any aspects of the words that survived into modern times.

   On another tack, mēð looks as if it might relate to the welsh meddwl – mind or thought. I think the ð sounds like the welsh dd.

   LikeLike

   • Bosworth-Toller (http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/022751) says it’s related to the German word müde (tired) and Icelandic móðr. I’m not sure if it has lived on in modern English at all. It appears to be related to the obsolete English adjective mothe (see screenshot from Oxford English Dictionary above).

     LikeLike

2. I think the modern English words related to Old English: mēðe is “mood” and cognate from the same PIE root via Latin: moral, morale, mores and morose.
   I imagine Welsh: “meddwl” (to think) is from the Proto-Indo-European *med- ‎(“to measure”) which would make it cognate with Old English: “metan” (to mete, measure) modern English: “mete” and hence the Latinate English words meditate, meditative, meditation, meditator etc.

   LikeLike

   • Interesting thought!

     LikeLike

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.