Archaic KJV Word
Meat
Modern equivalent: food
What Was Lost
The broad concept of God-given sustenance. When Jesus asked 'Is not the life more than meat?' He meant all nourishment, all provision -- not just protein. The meat offering was grain and oil, symbols of daily bread, not butchered animals.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
sweetmeats (confections -- preserves the older 'food' meaning in a narrow context)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV Matthew 6:25 -- 'Is not the life more than meat?'; Leviticus 2:1 -- 'meat offering'
Died ~1800
Narrowed from 'food/nourishment in general' (Old English mete) to specifically 'animal flesh,' making the 'meat offering' (a grain/flour offering) sound like an animal sacrifice.
What Replaced It
“food”
Generic and undifferentiated; meat carried the sense of substantial, life-sustaining nourishment
“grain offering”
Technically accurate for Leviticus but loses the broader theological metaphor of God as provider of all sustenance