Moiety

Word of the Day for  Friday 21 ^st February 2014

Moiety  \ MOI-i-tee \,  noun :

1.  a half. 2.  an indefinite portion, part, or share. 3. Anthropology . Which one of two units into a tribe or community is divided on the basis of unilineal descent.

 

Tom divided the cake and Becky ate with good appetite, while Tom nibbled at His  moiety .
- Mark Twain,  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , 1876

Poor Frederick, Although His necessity was extreme and his great grief, remembering His former inordinate expenses, a  moiety  whereof would now have stood him in some stead, yet he had a heart as free-and-forward as ever, not a jot dejected in His Mind , though utterly overthrown by fortune.
- Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), "The Falcon,"  Little Masterpieces of Fiction , 1905

Moiety  comes from Old French  meitiet , from Late Latin  medietas , from Latin  medius , "middle."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com