Etymologically
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melon

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Pronunciation

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

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