peat

See also: Peat

English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Northern Middle English pete (recorded in Latin text as peta), of uncertain origin; perhaps from a Celtic language such as an unattested Pictish or Brythonic source, in turn possibly from Proto-Brythonic *peθ (“portion, segment, piece”); if so, it would be a doublet of piece.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /piːt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt
• Homophone: Pete

Noun

peat (countable and uncountable, plural peats)

1. Soil formed of dead but not fully decayed plants found in bog areas, often burned as fuel. [from 14th c.]
   • 1958 September, J. M. Dunn, “The Afonwen Line—1”, in Railway Magazine, pages 595-596:

     On the return journey the engine ran short of coal, and came to a stand near Penygroes through shortage of steam. Fortunately, there was some peat in a nearby field, which the enginemen dug and the directors helped to carry to the engine. Steam was soon raised and the story had a happy ending!

Derived terms

• cocopeat
• milled peat
• peat bog
• peated
• peatery
• peating
• peatland
• peatless
• peatlike
• peatman
• peat moss
• peat pot
• peat-reek
• peat-smoke
• peat spade
• peatstack
• peatswamp
• peaty
• pitch peat

Translations

soil

Abkhaz: ато́рф (atʼórf) Albanian: torfë (sq) f, turbë (sq) f Arabic: خُثّ m (ḵuṯṯ) Armenian: տորֆ (hy) (torf) Azerbaijani: torf Basque: zohikatz Belarusian: торф m (torf) Breton: taouarc'h (br) Bulgarian: торф m (torf) Catalan: torba (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 泥炭 (zh) (nítàn), 泥煤 (zh) (níméi) Czech: rašelina (cs) f Danish: tørv Dutch: turf (nl) m, veen (nl) n Esperanto: torfo Faroese: torv n Finnish: turve (fi) French: tourbe (fr) f Galician: turba (gl) f Georgian: ტორფი (ka) (ṭorpi) German: Torf (de) m Greek: τύρφη (el) f (týrfi) Hebrew: כָּבוּל (he) m (kavul) Hungarian: tőzeg (hu) Icelandic: torf n, mór (is) m Irish: móin (ga) f Italian: torba (it) f Japanese: 泥炭 (ja) (でいたん, deitan) Kazakh: шымтезек (şymtezek), жертезек (jertezek) Korean: 이탄(泥炭) (ko) (itan) Latvian: kūdra f Maori: rei Norwegian: Bokmål: torv m or f Nynorsk: torv f or n Ossetian: торф (torf) Persian: تورب (fa) (turb), پوده (fa) (pude) Polish: torf (pl) m Portuguese: turfa (pt) f Russian: торф (ru) m (torf) Scottish Gaelic: mòine f, (single piece) fàd m, (single piece) fòid f Serbo-Croatian: тресет m, treset (sh) m Slovak: rašelina f Slovene: šota (sl) f Spanish: turba (es) f Swedish: torv (sv) Turkish: torf (tr), turba (tr) Ukrainian: торф m (torf) Welsh: mawn (cy) m

Further reading

• peat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Probably from Middle Dutch pete (“godmother or godfather”) (modern Dutch peet (“godparent, old woman, grandmother; godchild”)), related to dialectal German Pfette, Pfetter (“godfather; godchild”)), German Pate (“godfather, sponsor”), Patin (“godmother”). Or alternatively, related to pet (“a favourite”).

Noun

peat (plural peats)

1. (obsolete) A pet, a darling; a woman.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 78:

     And let it not displease thee, good Bianca, / For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl. / A pretty peat!

References

• Kuhn, Sherman (1982): Middle English Dictionary, Part 3, p. 880

See also

• four-peat
• three-peat

Anagrams

• PETA, Paet, Pate, Peta, epta-, pate, peta-, pâté, tape, tepa

Chinese

Etymology

Clipping of English repeat.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): pit¹

---

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: pit¹
    • Yale: pīt
    • Cantonese Pinyin: pit⁷
    • Guangdong Romanization: pid¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰiːt̚⁵/

Verb

peat

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to repeat a year

Synonyms

• 重讀／重读 (chóngdú)