mellow

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English melwe,^[2][3][4] and its origin is uncertain.^[5][4][6] Most dictionaries take it as an attributive use of melowe, an inflected form of mele (“ground grain, meal”),^[7][4][2] going back to the inflected stem of Old English melu (“meal, flour”),^{[5][6][8][9][10][11]} the source of meal in the sense of ground grain;^[7][10] Skeat notes that in Derbyshire a mellow apple or pear was called a mealy one.^[12] The Old English noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *melwą (“meal, flour”), a derivative of the strong verb *malaną.^[13] Others take mellow as a variant of merow (“soft, tender”), from mearu (“tender, soft, delicate”), with the r changed to l by dissimilation,^{[14][15][16][5]} perhaps first in the phrase “meruw fruit”;^[15] Barnhart and Weekley think that this word at least influenced its meaning.^[4][11] The Old English adjective is related to Old High German marawi (“tender, delicate”) and German mürbe (“soft, tender”),^[17][4][11] from Proto-Germanic *marwaz, which Orel compares with Old Irish meirb (“soft”).^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of fruit, ripe; soft, sweet and juicy with ripeness: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses melwe, or rype with Latin maturus.^[5][2][4] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century.^[14]

Semantic evolution

From ripe fruit the word spread to other things softened by ripeness or age: soil that is soft and loamy (1531), colours, smells and flavours that show ripeness (1563), and seeds and crops that are fully grown (1595).^[5] Of people it has meant "matured, softened by age and experience" since 1592, in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy,^[5] and "pleasantly drunk" since 1611, in Cotgrave;^[5] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes a little mellow in his ale from Beaumont and Fletcher (1613).^[19] In the 17th century it was used of sound, a warm, full tone without harshness (1650), and of food and drink that are well matured and smooth (1673), and in the 18th of soft, muted colour and light (1706).^[5][14] Etymonline dates the general sense "of ripe age or quality" to the 1590s.^[14] Johnson (1755) gave "soft with ripeness; full ripe" as the first sense.^[20] Keats's "To Autumn" (1820) is the first record of its use for a warm and gentle season or landscape.^[5] The verb followed in 1575, first meaning to ripen fruit or mature wine, and since 1593 to soften or tone down;^[5][3][14] the phrase mellow out, to relax, often under the influence of a drug, is American slang from 1974.^[5] In the dialects of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Suffolk it was said of meat, good and tender, and a mellow-hole in the East Riding was a hole in a stack where boys put apples to ripen; in Scotland it meant genial with drink.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – of fruit, ripe, soft and sweet.^[5][2][4]
• 1531 – of soil, soft and loamy.^[5]
• 1563 – of colour, smell or flavour, showing ripeness (obsolete after 1644).^[5] Etymonline dates the use of colour to the 1560s.^[14]
• 1575 – verb, to ripen fruit or mature wine.^[5][3]
• 1592 – of a person, softened by age and experience.^[5]
• 1593 – verb, to soften, tone down.^[5]
• 1611 – pleasantly drunk.^[5]
• 1650 – of sound, warm-toned, rich.^[5] Etymonline dates this use to the 1660s.^[14]
• 1673 – of food or drink, well matured, smooth.^[5]
• 1706 – of colour or light, soft, muted.^[5]
• 1820 – of a season or landscape, warm and gentle.^[5]
• 1974 – mellow out, to relax.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of fruit, ripe, soft and sweet: a basket of mellow plums.^[3][16][5]
2. Of wine or food, well matured, smooth and free from harshness.^[3][16][5]
3. Of sound, colour or light, soft, warm and rich: the mellow tone of the old cello.^[16][5]
4. Of a person, gentle, tolerant and kind, especially through age or experience.^[16][3][5]
5. Relaxed and good-humoured, especially from alcohol; slightly drunk.^[16][5][19]
6. Of soil, soft and loamy.^[16][5]

Verb

1. To make or become mellow; to soften or mature: The years had mellowed her temper.^[16][3][5]
2. mellow out: to become calm and relaxed, or to make someone so.^[16][5]

Word family

• mellowly
• mellowness
• unmellowed

Related words

• meal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
18. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
19. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
21. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)