Met

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /mɛt/

Definitions

1. The past form of encountering or coming together with someone or something ; the past form of changing from solid to liquid due to heat
2. Used to indicate a previous action of coming into the presence or company of another person ; describes a prior process of a solid becoming liquid by heating
3. Refers to having previously encountered or been introduced to someone ; shows that a substance was heated until it liquefied

Etymology: Few people would guess that the past tense of "meet" once had nothing to do with encountering anyone. Its ancestor, Old English "mætan," meant "to dream," and the sense of coming face to face arrived later, through a sense of meeting by chance or design that grew out of the older verb. The shift from dreaming to meeting is a striking one, and it shows how far a word can wander from its first meaning. The verb you see here, "met," is the past tense and past participle of "meet," so it is simply the form of that verb used for completed actions. Its present-day sense of having previously encountered or been introduced to someone is one of the verb's core meanings, while the sense of a substance melting, or liquefying under heat, is a separate use that follows the same pattern of a verb tied to coming together.