miel

Forms

miel f (plural mieles)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote myel and mjel.^[2][3] García de Diego records an old Castilian miell.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish miel, inherited from Vulgar Latin *melem, from Latin mel (“honey”).^[5][6][1] The Latin noun was neuter; the Vulgar Latin form added a final /e/ and changed gender, like *felem beside fel (“bile”) and *corem beside cor (“heart”).^[1]

The same word is Portuguese mel, Galician mel, Asturian miel, Catalan mel, Occitan mèl, French miel, Italian miele and Romanian miere.^{[4][7][8][9][10]}

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *meli and Proto-Indo-European *mélit (“honey”), with a suffix that Wiktionary finds in other words for foods.^[11][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek μέλι (méli) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ).^[11][12][1] The double ⟨ll⟩ of the other cases (as in the genitive) is disputed: Leumann took it from the word for “bile”, while Sihler explains it by sound change.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in God's promise to lead Israel to la tierra buena e ampla que mana lech e miel “the good and broad land that flows with milk and honey”.^[3][2] Corominas dates the first record to 1220–1250.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's Lapidario a polished stone gives off a taste dulce como miel “sweet as honey”, and 13th-century fueros list honey among the goods that may not be taken to Moorish lands.^[13][3] Covarrubias in 1611 repeats the old belief, which he attributes to Pliny, that honey is a dew from the sky gathered by bees, and records miel rosada “rose honey” and the saying acudir como moscas a la miel “to flock like flies to honey”.^[14]

With the sugar industry the word gained a second sense, the syrup of the sugar mills: Canary contracts of 1506 already deal in mieles, and the Diccionario de Autoridades defines this sense with a law of the Indies.^[15][16] In Cuba miel alone meant cane syrup, and bee honey had to be called miel de abejas; in Mexico and Central America miel still names the thick liquid of the second boiling of cane juice.^[17][18] Today the plural mieles also means the sweetness of success, and the word names a honey colour.^[6][19][20]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has miel and myel.^[3][2]
• 1220–1250 – the first record according to Corominas.^[5]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a taste to honey.^[13]
• 1490 – first record of meloja, and melcocha follows in 1495.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin mel, mellis and Greek meli.^[21]
• 1506 – a sugar contract from Tenerife uses mieles for the syrups of a sugar mill.^[15]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, miel rosada in Puerto Rico.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records acudir como moscas a la miel.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary records the proverb miel en la boca, y guarde la bolsa.^[23]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, from Latin mel.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. honey: the thick, sweet, yellowish substance that bees make from the nectar of flowers: Endulzó la infusión con miel de romero.^[6][1]
2. syrup obtained between two successive crystallizations or boilings in sugar making; in Mexico and Central America, the thick liquid from the second boiling of cane juice.^[6][18]
3. (figurative, usually plural) Sweetness; the pleasure of success.^[19][20]
4. (also adjective) A yellow colour like that of honey: Pintaron las contraventanas de color miel.^[6][20]

Word family

• melaza
• melero
• meloja
• meloso
• melar
• enmelar
• melcocha

Related words

• melisa
• melifluo
• Latin mel

Usage notes

Miel is feminine in Spanish (la miel), while the Galician and Portuguese word is masculine, and the masculine reaches the western Leonese of Babia, Laciana and upper Cabrera.^[25] Miel sobre hojuelas says that something good comes on top of something else good.^[26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. miel
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. miel
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4251
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miel
6. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. miel
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 550
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. miel
10. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. miel
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. miel
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1135
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. miel
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 564
17. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 254
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. miel
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. miel
20. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. miel
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. miel
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 475
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 701
25. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. miel
26. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 508