Proto-Semitic *MAT --- MĀT-" Proto-Germanic

• Middle Dutch and Proto-Germanic. This word is found also in Middle Low German , but seems further isolated. The spelling with "ae" is typical, with the E used only to indicate that the A is a long vowel. In modern language the vowel itself is spelled with double " A " : "maat".

   

  The word "maat" in also used in composed words, especially Middle Dutch "maetschap" that has a number of meanings : "society, company, mate, fellow, club," and some more. Without evidence from other Germanic languages it is difficult to make a hypothesis for Proto-Germanic. But the similarity with Hebrew and Semitic induces to suppose that the form "M Ā T-" existed in that old language.

• English has loaned this word from Middle Dutch, or perhaps ( quite less probably ) from Middle Low German. At the time there was little fundamental difference between those two. Middle Low German has lost ground with the dominant role High German has acquired, first through the performances of writers, of Martin Luther and later through political causes. English has developed different meanings for the word "mate".

• Proto-Semitic. This root is found in cognates of our words in Ugaritic that uses "M T" to express the concept of "people", Akkadian "mutu = companion" and Ethiopian , with a meaning nearer to English, "mēt" = husband". This root was probably used in Proto-Semitic : "* מ ת , mat, M T".