Etymologically
Log in

μύλη

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 20:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /mý.lɛː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈmy.li/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈmy.li/[1]

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)

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