Old English · verb

mætan

Normalised mǣtan

Part of speech: verb
Verb class: weak class 1
IPA: /ˈmæː.tɑn/
Syllables: ˈmæː · tɑn (2 syllables)
Modern English: met

Meaning

to dream (+accusative of dream) (+dative or accusative of person)

Þonne hē slǣpþ, þonne mǣt hine be þē ānre.

When he sleeps, he only dreams about you.

Conjugation

Conjugation of mætan
Indicative
	Present	Past
3rd singular	mǣteþ mǣtt mǣt	mǣtte
Subjunctive
Singular	mǣte	mǣtte

Non-finite forms of mætan
	Form
Infinitive	mǣtan
Inflected infinitive	mǣtenne
Present participle	mǣtende
Past participle	mǣted ġemǣted

Etymology

From an earlier sense meaning "to paint, sculpt, design," from Proto-West Germanic *maitijan (“to cut”), from Proto-Germanic *maitaną. Doublet of mētan (“to paint, sculpt, design”). The semantic shift of "to paint, sculpt, design" > "to dream" is likely analogical, i.e. a dream being likened to a series of images being painted for the dreamer (hence its impersonal use).

Descendants

met

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mætan · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution