meiss síld

m. wooden box, basket (hann hafði mikinn meis á baki).

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m. [O. H. G. meisa], a wooden box, a basket (in Norway of any basket of wicker-work); meis hefi ek á baki, verðrat matrinn betri, Hbl. 3; hann hafði mikinn meis á baki … rótar ofan í meisinn öllum fiskunum, þá er fullr meissinn, Grett. 137; selja mjöl í meisum, Gþl. 491; hann hafði borit í meis á baki sér Örvandil … ein tá hafði staðit ór meisinum, Edda 59; meisa síld, barrel-herrings, N. G. L. ii. 250; kola-meiss, Art., freq. in mod. usage; hey-meiss, a hay-box in which the hay is given to the cows, one meiss to each head of cattle.

a large basket, hamper, maois-eisg, five hundred fish, Irish maois, Welsh mwys, hamper, five score herring, Cornish muis, moys; Scottish mese, five hundred herring, Norse meiss, box, wicker basket, meiss síld, barrel-herrings, Old High German meisa, a basket for the back; Lithuanian maiszas, sack, Church Slavonic me$$?chu$$u. The relationship, whether of affinity or borrowing, between Celtic and Teutonic, is doubtful. The Brittonic might come from Latin mensa, a table, and the Gadelic from the Norse.