meaty

The word 'meaty' is a native English formation, built from the Old English root 'mete', which broadly meant "food" or "nourishment". Over time, the meaning of 'meat' narrowed specifically to the flesh of animals consumed as food. The adjectival suffix '-y', also from Old English '-ig', is a highly productive element used to create descriptive terms meaning "abounding in" or "resembling". Thus, the literal construction "full of meat" logically gave rise to its primary meaning. The figurative sense, describing something substantial or full of important content, is a natural semantic extension, comparing intellectual or textual substance to the physical substance of food.

Structure: meat (flesh of an animal used as food) + y (adjective-forming suffix) - meat: From Old English 'mete' (food, nourishment, sustenance). Functional role: The core semantic root. - y: From Old English '-ig', a suffix forming adjectives meaning "having the qualities of, full of, characterized by". Functional role: Derivational suffix.