Etymology

meagre

mea·gre
M3E1A1G2R1E1

Today it means: An edible fish, of species Argyrosomus regius, of the family Sciaenidae, found from the Black Sea to the eastern Atlantic. Full definition →

Middle French maigre
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

meagre · noun1

  1. Middle French · derived frommaigre
  2. English todaymeagre

From Middle French maigre.

meagre · adjective, verb2

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*mh₂ḱrós
  2. Latin · derived frommacer, macrum
  3. Old French · derived frommaigre
  4. Anglo-Norman · derived frommegre
  5. Middle English · inherited frommegre
  6. English todaymeagre

From Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, macrum, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Cognate with Old English mæġer (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishmegre all →

meager

Anglo-Normanmegre all →

meager

Old Frenchmaigre all →

meager

Proto-Indo-European*mh₂ḱrós all →

meagermacilent

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.