Other forms: meted, metes, meting
To mete is to deal out punishment or reward. Mete out justice, punishment was meted out, mete out rewards.
It survives only with out, and almost only with punishment or justice as the object. Its original sense was to measure, which is the point — what is meted out is measured to fit. The metes and bounds of an estate are its measured boundaries.
1verbmeteTo deal out punishment or reward.
“The judge meted out harsh sentences to all three men.”
mete is a dealing out.
Old English metan means to measure. Measure and metre are relatives; what is meted out is measured.
Proto-Indo-European
*med- — to measure, consider
Proto-Germanic
*metaną — to measure
Proto-West Germanic
*metan
Old English
metan — to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse
Middle English
meten
English, today
mete
From Middle English meten, from Old English metan (“to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse”), from Proto-West Germanic metan, from Proto-Germanic metaną (“to measure”), from Proto-Indo-European med- (“to measure, consider”). Cognate with Scots mete (“to measure”), stq meete (“to measure”), West Frisian mjitte (“to measure”), Dutch meten (“to measure”), German messen (“to measure”), Swedish mäta (“to measure”), Latin modus (“limit, measure, target”), Ancient Greek μεδίμνος (“measure, bushel”), Ancient Greek μέδεσθαι (“care for”), xcl միտ (“mind”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA