μύλη

Forms

μῠ́λη (múlē) f (genitive μῠ́λης); first declension^[1] Doric μύλᾱ.^[2][3] Hellenistic and later also masculine μύλος (múlos).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *mólā,^[1] a primary verbal noun from the Indo-European root of grinding, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *melh₁- (“to grind, crush”) (Wiktionary writes *melh₂-).^[4][1] The υ of μύλη, of the later μύλος (múlos) and of the verb μύλλω (múllō, “to grind”) is explained by Vine as a raising of o to u before l followed by y in the present stem, as in φύλλον (phúllon) beside Latin folium; the vowel then spread from the verb to the noun.^[4] A stem with e appears in Mycenaean Greek me-re-u-ro (“flour”) and me-re-ti-ri-ja (“women who grind”); compare also μάλευρον (máleuron).^[5]

Cognate with Latin mola (“millstone”) and molō (“to grind”), Lithuanian malù (“I grind”) and English meal; the verb first meant “to crush”, a technique distinct from pounding with a pestle.^[4][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is the handmill at which women grind the grain in the palace of the Phaeacians, and on which a slave woman grinds through the night.^[3][6][2]

Semantic evolution

A Greek quern had a fixed flat lower stone and a smaller upper one moved by hand; μύλη could be the whole mill or, as in Aristophanes, the lower stone alone, the upper being called ὄνος (ónos).^[2][3] Alcman, Semonides and a popular grinding song in Plutarch use it too.^[2]

By resemblance the medical writers and Aristotle called the kneecap and a hard mass in the womb μύλη, and the Septuagint and Galen used the plural for the molar teeth.^[3][4] Modern Greek μύλη (míli) is a learned word: “millstone, grindstone” follows French meule, and the Hellenistic sense survives as “molar”.^[7][8] The ordinary word for a mill is Modern Greek μύλος (mýlos), from the later masculine.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for the handmill worked by women.^[3][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the lower millstone.^[3][2][9]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it for the kneecap and a hard growth in the womb.^[3][4][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle also uses it for the kneecap.^[3][9]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses the plural for molar teeth.^[3][4]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek μύλη (míli) means a millstone or grindstone, and a molar.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A handmill, quern, for grinding grain.^[2][3]
2. A millstone, especially the lower one.^[3][2]
3. (medicine) The kneecap; a hard formation in the womb.^[3][4]
4. (plural) The molars.^[3][4]

Word family

• μύλαξ (múlax)
• μυλήφατος (mulḗphatos)
• μυλίας (mulías)
• μυλικός (mulikós)
• μύλλω (múllō)
• μυλοειδής (muloeidḗs)
• μυλωθρός (mulōthrós)
• μυλών (mulṓn)
• χειρομύλη (kheiromúlē)
• μύλινος (múlinos)
• μυλόδους (mulódous)
• μύλοικος (múloikos)
• ὑδρομύλη (hudromúlē)

Related words

• Latin mola
• English meal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
5. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge