melody

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English melodie,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French melodie (“song, music, tune”),^[4][3][2] and partly a direct borrowing of Late Latin melōdia,^[3][5] from Ancient Greek μελῳδία (melōidía, “singing, chanting, choral song”),^[4][3][5] from μελῳδός (melōidós, “musical, singing”),^[4][6][7] a compound of μέλος (mélos, “limb; musical phrase, song”) and ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”), the source of ode.^[4][3][5] Etymonline calls the origin of the first element uncertain;^[3] Ayto notes that it first meant a limb and was transferred to a part of a piece of music and then to a song,^[8] and Merriam-Webster relates it to Breton mell (“joint”), Welsh cymal (“joint”) and Sanskrit मर्मन् (marman, “limb”).^[9] In the Middle Ages the Latin word was associated with Latin mel (“honey”), which gave it a suggestion of sweetness.^[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sweet music or song, including birdsong, and the beauty of musical sound: c. 1300, in a Middle English life of Saint Brendan;^[4][3] Barnhart dates it probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Around 1300 a melody could also be a musical performance, especially a song, a sense lost by 1530,^[4] and to make melody, to make music or sing, is found from about 1330.^[4] Chaucer used the word 31 times and Gower nine times.^[11] Etymonline dates the sense "a song of clear and balanced form" to the late 14th century.^[3] Since 1589 the word has also described a pleasing sound in verse or prose.^[4] The modern sense, a series of single notes forming a tune, appears in 1609, in John Dowland's translation of Ornithoparchus, and Etymonline puts it at about 1600.^[4][3] Johnson (1755) still defined it broadly as "musick; harmony of sound".^[12] Melody as an element of musical composition, set against harmony, is recorded from 1728,^[4][7] and as the principal voice-part of a harmonized piece by 1880.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – sweet music, tunefulness;^[4][3] also a musical performance (until 1530).^[4]
• c. 1330 – to make melody, to make music or sing.^[4]
• 1589 – a pleasing quality in writing.^[4]
• 1596 – the verb, to make music, sing.^[4]
• 1609 – a tune, a series of single notes.^[4][3]
• 1728 – melody as an element of composition.^[4]
• 1807 – a poem to be sung, in Thomas Moore's title.^[4]
• 1880 – the principal voice-part.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sequence of single musical notes forming a recognizable tune: She hummed a simple melody while she worked.
2. (music) The main part of a harmonized piece, which carries the tune.
3. The aspect of music concerned with the arrangement of single notes, as distinct from harmony.
4. A pleasing arrangement of sounds, especially in the words of poetry.
5. (literary, rare) A song or poem suitable for singing.

Verb

1. (rare) To make music or sing; to sing a melody.

Word family

• melodic
• melodically
• melodyless
• melodist
• melodize
• undermelody
• melodious
• countermelody

Related words

• melodrama
• ode
• comedy
• malady

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.