melon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English meloun, also melon,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French melon (recorded about 1256)^[5][3] and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin melō,^[3][2] which is probably a shortening of Latin melopepō (“a kind of pumpkin”).^[5][3][6][7] That is from Ancient Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopépōn, “gourd-apple”), a name for several gourds with sweet fruit,^[3][6] formed from μῆλον (mêlon, “apple”) and πέπων (pépōn, “a kind of gourd; ripe”).^[3][8][7][4] Barnhart adds that the Medieval Latin word may sometimes have been taken directly from the Greek mêlon, understood as "a large apple".^[2] Weekley notes that foreign fruits were often called "apples", as in pomegranate.^[9] The same Latin word gave melone, melón and melão.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The edible fruit of a gourd: about 1395 as meloun in Barnhart,^[10][2] and before 1398 in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the OED.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that in Greek mêlon was used broadly for all foreign fruits, and that its plural was used from ancient times for a girl's breasts.^[3] In English the main sense narrowed to the fruit of Cucumis melo and the watermelon.^[5][11] From the late 18th century the word named shells and, in 1879, the rounded fatty organ in the head of toothed whales.^[5][12] Slang uses began in the late 19th century: melon for a fool in Australia and New Zealand (1896), a person's head in Australia and the United States (1868 in Green's, 1907 in the OED), and in the plural for large breasts (1957).^[5][13] In American business slang a melon is a large profit shared out among several people, and to cut a melon is to declare an unusually large dividend.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – meloun, the fruit.^[10][2]
• before 1398 – an edible gourd, in Trevisa.^[5]
• 1776 – a melon shell.^[5]
• 1868 – slang, a person's head.^[13]
• 1879 – the fatty organ in a toothed whale's head.^[5]
• 1896 – a fool (Australia and New Zealand).^[5]
• 1909 – a large profit to be shared out.^[5]
• 1957 – plural, large breasts.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The large round or oval fruit of plants of the gourd family, such as the muskmelon and the watermelon, with a hard rind and sweet juicy flesh.^[11][12][5]
2. A plant that bears such fruit.^[11][12]
3. A rounded organ of fatty tissue in the forehead of toothed whales, thought to focus sound.^[12][5]
4. (slang, Australian and US) A person's head.^[5][13]
5. (vulgar slang, usually plural) A woman's breast.^[11][5]
6. (US) A large profit to be divided among a group.^[11][5] cut a melon: to pay out an unusually large dividend.^[11][5]

Word family

• melon baller
• Persian melon

Related words

• watermelon
• muskmelon
• pumpkin
• malic
• pepo

Usage notes

In Australia melon is also a shortening of pademelon, a small wallaby.^[5][12][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press