moiety

Definition

A half.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French moytié, from Old French meitié (“half”) (modern French moitié (“half”)), from Late Latin medietās (“centre, midpoint; half”), from Latin medius (“half; middle”) + -tās (from Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being)). Medius is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”), possibly from *me-dʰi- (“among; with”), from *me (“in the middle of; among; with”). The word is a doublet of mediety.

Example Sentences

• "They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ſtriu’d / With th’Heliconian maides for mayſtery; / Of whom they ouer-comen, were depriu’d / Of their proud beautie, and th’one moyity / Transform’d to fiſh, for their bold ſurquedry, / But th’vpper halfe their hew retayned ſtill, / And their ſweet skill in wonted melody; / Which euer after they abuſd to ill, / T’allure weake traueillers, whom gotten they did kill."
• "The death of Anthony / Is not a ſingle doome. In the name lay / A moity of the world."
• "[E]very merchant and paſſenger, that brings merchandizes into this land of Ireland out of England to the ſumme of one hundred pounds, that he ſhall buy and bring with him into the ſaid land in bowes to the value of one hundred ſhillings, […] and if any merchant or paſſenger bring any merchandize into the ſaid land, and bring with him no bowes as is afore rehearſed, that the ſaid merchant ſhall loſe and pay the value of the ſaid bowes, the one moietie thereof to the King, and the other moiety to the ſearchers of the ſame for the time being; […]"