muid, noun

/mjuːd//mœɪd/
Forms:
Also muead, mued.
Plurals:
muids, or muiden.
Origin:
South African Dutch, French, LatinShow more South African Dutch, from French muid (from Latin modius a peck) a dry and liquid measure.
historical
A measurement of capacity equal to about three bushels, used at the Cape especially during the 18th and 19th centuries, usually for grain; mud. Also attributive. Cf. schepel.
1795 T.H. Craig in G.M. Theal Rec. of Cape Col. (1897) I. 271Corn, of which the quantity in store belonging to the Company is immense, no less than 36,166 muids which I am informed is equal to near two years consumption.
1806 J. Barrow Trav. II. 48The following is an abstract of the Opgaaff for the Cape district in the year 1797...Stock and produce...Muids of wheat sown in 1796, 3464 heaped.
1816 G. Barker Journal. 8 JulyToday my corn was all put into the ground, (2 muiden).
1823 W.W. Bird State of Cape of G.H. 104The price of wheat in those days may be calculated at from 40 to 50 rix-dollars per load of ten muids, weighing 1800lbs. Dutch.
1833 Graham’s Town Jrnl 17 Jan. 1A good Garden and Arable land, from which 13 muids of good Wheat has been cleared this season.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 146The Namacquas of Lily Fountain had sown latterly about one hundred muids, or twenty thousand pounds of wheat annually.
1859 Cape Town Weekly Mag. 11 Feb. 39Verily, Burghersdorp is an expensive place to live in...We shall just quote the present prices of articles of consumption:—..meal, fifty shillings the muid! with every prospect of an increase in price.
1871 J. McKay Reminisc. 299A muid of wheat, which at its place of production or nearest market, is sold at from seven to ten shillings, will cost about twenty shillings before the Bay merchant receives it.
1915 J.K. O’Connor Afrikander Rebellion 99There are too many poor whites in the country at present, and the problem..is of greater importance than the production of three muids of mealies where only one muid is now obtained.
1937 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric. & Forestry) 754Muid sacks are commonly used in this country for harvesting [cotton].
1941 C.W. De Kiewiet Hist. of S. Afr. 26After just one hundred years of existence all the Cape managed to export was 75,000 muids (A muid equals three bushels) of wheat per year.
1949 M.W. Spilhaus in A.C. Partridge Lives, Lett. & Diaries (1971) 11The word muid (no longer a legal quantity) was a Dutch measure of capacity derived, through French, from Latin modius, ‘a peck’. In the Cape, the measure was slightly less than three English bushels, or six pecks..; its use was confined to the measurement of grain or fruit.
c1963 B.C. Tait Durban Story 59In the absence of laundry baskets, a muid sack stuffed full of clothes was considered an average week’s wash.
1987 G. Viney Col. Houses 62The werf boasted a barn containing one hundred and seventy muids of wheat.
A measurement of capacity equal to about three bushels, used at the Cape especially during the 18th and 19th centuries, usually for grain; mud. Also attributive.
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historical
muggie, nounn.muishond, nounn.
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