115: mate Apr 2, 2015

Spring has sprung (even if it is only marginally warmer): a time of rebirth, with the underlying notion of mating. The word 'mate' (both noun and verb) comes from late Middle English through the Middle Low-German word 'māt(e)'. The original sense of this word was ‘comrade,’ which was related to meat, with the understanding of eating [meat] together. The denotation of this word as sex came much later.