mete

Etymology 1

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”), Saterland Frisian 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 (medímnos, “measure, bushel”), Ancient Greek μέδεσθαι (médesthai, “care for”), Old Armenian միտ (mit, “mind”).

verb

1. (transitive, archaic, poetic, dialectal) To measure.
   the Power that fashions man Measured not out thy little span For thee to take the meting-rod In turn, 1870s Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Soothsay, lines 80-83
2. (transitive, usually with “out”) To dispense, measure (out), allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
   Match'd with an agèd wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race 1833, Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses
   Every generation metes out substantially the same punishment to those who fall far below and those who rise high above its standards. 1929, Kirby Page, Jesus Or Christianity A Study In Contrasts, page 31

Etymology 2

From Middle English mete, borrowed from Old French mete (“boundary, boundary marker”), from Latin mēta (“post, goal, marker”). Cognate with the second element in Old English wullmod (“distaff”).

noun

1. A boundary or other limit; a boundary-marker; mere.

Etymology 3

adj

1. Obsolete spelling of meet (“suitable, fitting”)
   I could not finde any man for whose name this booke was more agreable for hope [of] protection, more mete for submission to iudgement, nor more due for respect of worthynesse of your part and thankefulnesse of my husbandes and myne. 1570, Margaret Ascham, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, foreword