In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
DEMEAN
Etymology 1
Verb
demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)
To debase; to lower; to degrade.
To humble, humble oneself; to humiliate.
To mortify.
Synonyms
• debase
• lower
• degrade
Etymology 2
Verb
demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)
(obsolete) To manage; to conduct; to treat.
(now rare) To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.
Noun
demean (usually uncountable, plural demeans)
(obsolete) Management; treatment.
(obsolete) Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.
Etymology 3
Noun
demean (plural demeans)
demesne.
resources; means.
Etymology 4
Verb
demean (third-person singular simple present demeans, present participle demeaning, simple past and past participle demeaned)
(statistics, transitive) To subtract the mean from (a value, or every observation in a dataset).
Anagrams
• Medean, Nadeem, amende, amened, dename, meaned
Source: Wiktionary
De*mean", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Demeaned; p. pr. & vb. n. Demeaning.] Etym: [OF. demener to conduct, guide, manage, F. se démener to struggledé- (L. de) + mener to lead, drive, carry on, conduct, fr. L. minare to drive animals by threatening cries, fr. minari to threaten. See Menace.]
1. To manage; to conduct; to treat. [Our] clergy have with violence demeaned the matter. Milton.
2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. They have demeaned themselves Like men born to renown by life or death. Shak. They answered . . . that they should demean themselves according to their instructions. Clarendon.
3. To debase; to lower; to degrade; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter. Thackeray.
Note: This sense is probably due to a false etymology which regarded the word as connected with the adjective mean.
De*mean", n. Etym: [OF. demene. See Demean, v. t.]
1. Management; treatment. [Obs.] Vile demean and usage bad. Spenser.
2. Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor. [Obs.] With grave demean and solemn vanity. West.
De*mean", n. Etym: [See Demesne.]
1. Demesne. [Obs.]
2. pl.
Definition: Resources; means. [Obs.] You know How narrow our demeans are. Massinger.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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