Etymology: Partly < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic mið middle, mark, fishing bank indicated by landmarks on shore (Icelandic mið middle, landmark, fishing ground, goal), Norwegian (Nynorsk) mid fishing ground, Swedish regional med , me , mej bearings, orientation at sea in respect of landmarks, Danish med mark, target, goal) < the Germanic base of mid adj. (the development of sense appears to have been ‘middle; midpoint between two landmarks; place located by such landmarks’); and partly (in later use) < meith v. The form and sense of the word in English may have been influenced by an association with classical Latin mēta mete n.¹ Compare post-classical Latin meida meith, landmark (1180 in a British source).An unattested Norn reflex of the early Scandinavian word with loss of final -ð (a common feature of Norn) is indicated by some of the Orkney and Caithness forms. The forms mease , mees , meese , meethis were probably originally plurals; the unusual Orkney form maisan probably reflects the Norn enclitic neuter plural definite article in -in added to an already pluralized form in -s . For variation in the vowel of the root syllable see discussion s.v. meith v. The word is preserved in the names of some Shetland fishing grounds (sometimes with loss of final consonant), as Baltimids, Fjalsmi, Longemi.

Etymology: < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic miða to mark the position of something (Icelandic miða ), Norwegian (Nynorsk) mida , Swedish regional meda , Old Danish mede ) < the same Scandinavian base as Old Icelandic mið (see meith n.). Compare myth v.¹, myth v.²Forms with e , ei , etc., show the usual Scots and northern Middle English development of short ĭ > long close ē in open syllables (compare the forms s.v. live v.¹). The unusual form mooth (see quot. 1650 at sense 1) probably represents a hypercorrect spelling (since in north-eastern Scots of the 17th cent. the graphs oo and ei represent the same sound: /i(ː)/).