Eddie said, The origins of the word date to before 900 AD (ME, mot(e), meeting or assembly); "moot," therefore, is etymologically connected to the word "meet." (Thanks, friend.) This got me to thinking.
Kentucky is laid out according to the metes and bounds system. My geology teacher did not go into why it is called that--he just wanted us to learn the name. But it makes sense to me that you could say, "XYZ property is bordered (bound) by Stinking Creek (there really is one so named) on the east", for ex. Could metes be a corruption of meets? As in, "ABC property ends where Beargrass Creek meets the Ohio River"?

Dear Jackie: the relationship of words "mete" and "meet" is rather complex. But they all go back to a word meaning to measure.and leave a marker. So complicated I got discouraged from trying to tie it together in a reply.

There is also the expression, mete it out, where it is a verb, mete, meted, meting, which is the most prevalent usage today.

Thanks, Sweet WO'N, you reminded me of something I meant to ask: can there be a mete?

Metes and Bounds -- Description of land by boundary lines, with their terminal points and angles. Originally metes referred to distance, bounds to direction; contemporarily, the words have no individual meaning of practical significance.

http://westerndivision.ctt.com/sistersites/santa_barbara/terms.htm#M

Edit: In states that have been laid out by government survey into sections and townships, land-parcels can be described on the basis of those units; for example: "the south 200 feet of the east half or the north-east quarter" of section thus-and-so. This is refered to as the government survey system or, more technically, the cadastral system.

Irregular tracts will however require a metes and bounds description (or a description by reference to a plat or may depicting the dimensions and position of various tracts).

Kentucky is laid out according to the metes and bounds system.

Does this mean that land is meted out to bounders? I'm sure Kentucky has a few. Why else would "Because he needed killin' " be a valid legal defence?

something I meant to ask: can there be a mete?

Yes, per bartleby http://www.bartleby.com/61/6/M0250600.html: A boundary line; a limit

Irregular tracts will however require a metes and bounds description

This system is discouraged (where alternatives are available), because it is the most subject to potential surveyor-error in preparing the description of the parcel's metes and bounds. A minor slip can cause the description to be inaccurate, or even nonsensical, leading to nasty real-estate litigation.

Hence the saying, "One man's mete is another man's poison."

Dear Keiva: I believe that the mete is a single point whose coordinates have been determined. A pair of metes are needed to determing a line, which is the boundary, I believe.

I believe that the mete is a single point whose coordinates have been determined. A pair of metes are needed to determing a line, which is the boundary, I believe.

That's the way I understand it, too, Dr. Bill. Historic District boundaries are usually given in metes and bounds fashion. The tricky part is establishing a 1st point that is unchangeable -- can't use property lines or roads, and even buildings can move or be demolished. Usually it is related to a major building, the loss of which would destroy the integrity of the district anyway.

Warning : True Yankee tale and a question for you all.

We had a Selectman here in town who was a non-practicing attorney with a penchant for seeking out odd responsibilities of Boards of Selectmen. He struck gold in 1976 (the USA Bicentennial) and informed the board the NH RSAs (revised statutes annotated) required selectmen to walk the metes and bounds of the town every ten years. The law had been passed in the early days of the republic! Further, he noted that the responsibility had not been met for many years!
Well, duty bound, the Board could not ignore the law ... after reading the requirements the selectmen learned the discharge of the obligation entailed contacting the Boards of Selectmen of all abutting towns to meet at each of the bounds... a minimum of three selectmen from each town at each bound.
The selectmen parceled out the meetings so no one would have the burden of all the meetings.
The town assessor, who keeps the plats and maps dating from the town's founding in 1600s, discovered one of the bounds is in the middle of the extensive salt water marsh!
The state Fish and Game Department was consulted about the advisability of walking the bound over winter ice and were told the salt water ice would not support any weight over that of a bird.
So both the towns had to rent Boston Whaler boats. The date was set for the marsh meeting and of course it was one of that winter's coldest and windiest days!
Bundled up to the ears, wearing heavy boots and encumbered by life vests the selectmen made the meet and discharged their duties and filed all the documentation with the state.
The selectman who had brought up the whole thing was not among the three who had to make the Great Marsh Mete."

the Question : to best of my knowledge the metes and bounds have not been walked since 1976. Should I call the Town Manager or the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen?

Ah, life in small towns. We have to take our amusements where we find them!

Many people interested in genealogy in New England discover many discrepancies in town lines. In trying to locate dwelling of one of my ancestors, I found that the changes in town lines in that vicinity took up two and a half pages. The house in question is now at Sturbridge Village.

Quite a while ago I made a post about English town fathers' custom of taking boys along each spring, and literally beating the bounds, which were typically stone markers, and beating the kids' butts painfully at each boundary, to be sure they would remember it when they were grown up.

The tricky part is establishing a 1st point that is unchangeable

100% right, Flatlander.

Over 25 years ago a client was financing property on Long Island whose legal description began "at the northeast corner of the intersection of Plum and Main Streets". My conversation with the title insurer went along these lines:
me: Please specify the location of these streets by referencing the original recorded plats dedicating them.
them: There's no such document of record; these streets date back to colonial times.
me: Then how can one know where that intersection-point is?
them: By going out to the street-corner and looking, of course, silly!
me: But if the streets are widened in the future, how will we then know what point was intended?
them: If that happens, so what? We are insuring that the mortgage you have is a valid lien on the land.
me: Yes, but over *what* land? How will we know what land is subject to the insurance?

Eventually they had to specify the point by reference to the rudimentary set of "cadastral" points they had available -- complicated by the fact that their cadastral measurements were based on magnetic north, while their other measurements were based on true north.

Dear Keiva: Your word "cadastral" sounds very impressive. At first I thought its etymology was something about 'stars falling'. I was disappointed when dictionary said it just referred to municpal records.