MEAL originally referred to a suitable or fixed time to do something. Like eating. Hence the shift.
It also referred to a unit of measure, especially as specified by words it was added to. Like PIECEMEAL. Piece by piece.
Other -MEAL words didn't survive. DROPMEAL, FOOTMEAL, FINGERMEAL, HEAPMEAL.
Some words related to MOON:
- month
- measure
- meter
- menstrual (menses = months in Latin)
- meal (more below)
🙏
another fun fact is that the verb "magyaráz", derived from "magyar" means "to explain"
so we're basically the land of mansplainers
Liquid counterpart! Nuncheon! NOONDRINK!
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Very interesting!
a note though to the english world: we make far less of the family name "magyar" as the english do because it's quite a common name (35th overall according to wikipedia)
in general, "nation" surnames are incredibly common, 3 of the top 10 names are "tóth", "horvát" and "németh"
If I'm not mistaken, isn't the name Péter Magyar like Péter Hungarian?
MAGYAR (endonym) is the name HUNGARIANS (exonym) use for themselves and their language.
MAGYAR, with Uralic roots, concerns MAN/PERSON.
Via Latin, HUNGARY has ancient Turkic roots (concerning TRIBE) and influenced by HUN.
Our moon.
Our muse.
Our measurer—if we gaze at the etymology of the word MOON.
mashedradish.com/2026/04/12/m...
English also have MORROW MEAT for "breakfast" and EVENMEAT for "supper."
MEAT originally just meant "food."
Why eat noonmeat when you can have NUMMIT?!
A screen capture of the entry for "noonmeat" in the Oxford English Dictionary.com
Why eat lunch when you can have NOONMEAT?
A screen capture from the Oxford English Dictionary of the entry for "splashdown."
Splashdown. 1961. "The alighting of a spacecraft on the sea." (OED) Poetry.
This METER is a METE-ER, as in ONE WHO MEASURES.
First used use of GAS-METER in early 1800s. Now extended to various measuring apparatuses.
The Greek-based METER (of poetry, length) used across scientific terminology was no doubt a semantic influence.
English, the cheek!
English, you can be an absolute lil stinker sometimes.
METER, as in a PARKING METER, is _not_ from the same source as the METER of a poem or measuring stick.
It's from METE, as in TO METE OUT PUNISHMENT, via the Old English METAN (measure).
When the moon in the sky
Shoves basalt in your eye
That’s a mare
Yessss!
And that’s MAR-ee-a, not mar-EE-a
YES. Has been in my head and on rotation since launch.
AMAZING 👏👏👏
🎵 Where the moon's dark and plain
Like a rock slick with rain
That's a mare
So… when the moon has a spot
Wide and flat like a lot
That’s a mare?
Pssht. I can't handle it! Right before going out of signal, the astronauts, probing the mysteries of the cosmos, urge us to contemplate the mysteries of love.
A MARE, pronounced like MAR-ey, is a large, level, basaltic plain on the surface of the moon. It appears dark to the naked eyes.
This MARE comes from the Latin for SEA—because these plains were once thought to be seas, a notion going back to antiquity.
The plural, true to the Latin, is MARIA.
Love that, as we behold the dark side of the moon for the first time and at the furthest distance we have ever gone from Earth, the astronauts are also havin' some lunch.
Why is Easter is called "Easter"? Etymologically, it's right there in the name.
mashedradish.com/2026/04/05/e...
Yes, exactly this. It has the added, existential benefiting of blowing your mind that, as you go about your mundane affairs, 1) WE ARE IN SPACE and 2) you are able to freakin' watch it.
TAKE-OFF, recorded 1904.
BLAST-OFF, recorded 1951.
LIFT-OFF, recorded 1956.
FUCKING INSPIRING, witnessed just moments ago.
