μέλι

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /mé.li/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈme.li/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈme.li/^[1]

Forms

μέλῐ (méli) n (genitive μέλῐτος); third declension^[1] Mycenaean Greek me-ri.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *méli,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mélit (“honey”), an old inherited neuter.^[2][1] It is formally identical with Hittite milit; the Greek verb βλίττω (blíttō) and the Hittite stem malit- show that the root once had ablaut, with a genitive *mlit-ós.^[2]

With a thematic suffix the word appears in Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ) and Albanian mjaltë, from Proto-Indo-European *meli-t-o-; Old Irish mil and Latin mel may also go back to *meli-t-.^[2][3] Old Armenian մեղր (mełr) passed to the u-stems, probably under the influence of the synonymous word continued in μέθυ (méthu).^[2][3]

μέλισσα (mélissa) “bee” is perhaps shortened by haplology from a compound meaning “honey-licker”, or derived from the stem of μέλι.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets already record honey as me-ri.^[2][3] In Homer it is honey, often “pale” (χλωρόν), and the image of sweetness: a voice “flowed sweeter than honey”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Comparisons with honey run through Greek poetry, for song and eloquence (Pindar, Moschus); Aristophanes called Sophocles “honey-smeared”.^[5][6] Herodotus applied it to a syrup made from palms and other fruits and cereals, and later writers to sweet gums or manna collected from trees, and to “mad” honey (Strabo).^[5][6]

In the Septuagint the promised land is the “land flowing with milk and honey”, and honey stands for sweet words; in the New Testament the “wild honey” of Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6 is food in the wilderness.^[7][8] Medieval Greek used it figuratively for anything delightful, including the sweetness of love, and Modern Greek μέλι (méli) is unchanged today; the learned genitive survives in “honeymoon”, μήνας του μέλιτος.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – honey (me-ri) on the Linear B tablets.^[2]
• Homer – honey, and the image of a sweet voice.^[4][5]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho's proverb “neither honey nor bee for me”, of those who refuse the rough with the smooth.^[5][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes honey made from palms.^[5][6][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes calls Sophocles “smeared with honey”.^[5][11]
• 1st century AD – the Gospels mention “wild honey” (Matthew 3:4, Mark 1:6).^[8]
• Modern Greek – μέλι, with “honeymoon” (μήνας του μέλιτος).^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Honey.^[5][6]
2. (figurative) Anything sweet, especially song, poetry and eloquence.^[5][6]
3. Sweet liquid, syrup made from fruits and cereals.^[6][5]
4. Sweet gum collected from certain trees, manna, including the “wild honey” of the New Testament.^[5][6][8]

Word family

• μελίγλωσσος (melíglōssos)
• μελίκρατον (melíkrāton)
• μέλισσα (mélissa)
• μέλιττα (mélitta)
• μελίφρων (melíphrōn)
• θαλασσόμελι (thalassómeli)
• μελίμηλον (melímēlon)
• μελίπτορθος (melíptorthos)
• μελίτινος (melítinos)
• ὑδρόμελι (hudrómeli)
• μελιτόεις (melitóeis)
• μελίχρως (melíkhrōs)
• μελιτοῦττα (melitoûtta)

Related words

• English marmalade

Usage notes

The Suda notes that honey is sweet to the taste but bitter in its effects, since it was thought to produce bile.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner