meek

Definition

Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.

Etymology

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, probably 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”); compare Old English smēag (“subtle, stealthy, etc.”) and smūgan. 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”), Proto-Slavic *mękъkъ (“soft”), Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit मुञ्चति (muñcati, “to release, let loose”).

Example Sentences

• "Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth."
• "Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else..."
• "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."