Old English mǣl (also in the sense 'measure', surviving in words such as piecemeal 'measure taken at one time'), of Germanic origin. The early sense of meal involved a notion of ‘fixed time’; compare with Dutch maal 'meal, (portion of) time' and German Mal 'time', Mahl 'meal', from an Indo-European root meaning 'to measure'Old English melu, meolo, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch meel and German Mehl, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin molere 'to grind'
