μῆλον

μῆλον¹ sheep, goat

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /mɛ̂ː.lon/^[4]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈmi.lon/^[4]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈmi.lon/^[4]

Forms

μῆλον (mêlon) n (genitive μήλου); second declension^[4]

Etymology

The word for sheep and goats is probably inherited from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁lo- (“small cattle”), an old name of small livestock.^[1][3] It matches Old Irish mil (“small animal”) exactly, and the West Germanic word for a cow, as in Dutch maal (“young cow”).^[1][3] Old Armenian մալ (mal, “sheep”) and a Ukrainian word for small cattle have the vowel a instead.^[1][3] Ačaṙyan and Clackson, cited by Beekes, take the Armenian word for a loan from Arabic, and Wiktionary keeps it apart for that reason.^[1][4]

Beekes and Chantraine connect the Slavic adjective for “small”, Old Church Slavonic малъ (malŭ), and, with an initial s-, the Germanic word for “small, narrow”, as in Old English smæl and English small, which is often used of small cattle; positing Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₁l- with its ablaut grades brings all these words together.^[1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer the word is nearly always plural and means the small cattle, sheep and goats together, as opposed to oxen; an adjective is added to say which sex is meant.^[5][2] The singular appears twice in the Odyssey, once of a sheep and once of a goat.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to poetry: Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus and Sophocles use it, while prose says πρόβατα (próbaton) instead.^[3][2] Poets widened it to herds in general, even to cattle, to beasts as opposed to men, and especially to sacrificial animals.^[2] The Doric form is also μῆλον, and it occurs in personal names such as Εὔμηλος.^[2]

Its many compounds name shepherds and their work, from the Homeric μηλοβοτήρ (mēlobotḗr, “shepherd”) to Pindar's and Euripides' μηλοβότας (mēlobótas).^[1][3] Hellenistic Greek made μηλωτή (mēlōtḗ, “sheepskin”) from it.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it, mostly in the plural, for sheep and goats.^[5][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days contrasts the small cattle with the oxen.^[2][7]
• 5th century BC – Pindar, Aeschylus and Sophocles use it in lyric and tragedy, often of sacrificial beasts.^[2][3][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – The comic poet Philemon has the derivative μηλωτή “sheepskin”.^[1][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly plural) Small livestock, sheep and goats, as opposed to oxen.^[2][6][5]
2. (singular) A sheep or a goat.^[6][5]
3. (poetic) Herds in general; beasts as opposed to men, especially sacrificial animals.^[2]

Word family

• δεξίμηλος (dexímēlos)
• μηλοβοσκός (mēloboskós)
• μηλοβότας (mēlobótas)
• μηλοβοτήρ (mēlobotḗr)
• μηλόβοτος (mēlóbotos)
• μηλονόμος (mēlonómos)
• μηλοσκόπος (mēloskópos)
• μηλοσφαγέω (mēlosphagéō)
• μηλοτρόφος (mēlotróphos)
• μηλοφόνος (mēlophónos)
• πολύμηλος (polúmēlos)
• φερέμηλος (pherémēlos)
• μήλειος (mḗleios)
• ἐπιμήλιος (epimḗlios)
• μηλωτή (mēlōtḗ)

μῆλον² apple, tree fruit

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /mɛ̂ː.lon/^[4]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈmi.lon/^[4]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈmi.lon/^[4]

Forms

μῆλον (mêlon) n (genitive μήλου); second declension^[4]

Etymology

The apple is a Mediterranean word, from Pre-Greek, which in Greek replaced the Indo-European name of the apple.^[1][3][9] The Doric and Aeolic form is μᾶλον (mâlon).^[1][2] It was once compared with Hittite maḫla-, but that Hittite word means a grapevine or a vine shoot.^[1][4] Kroonen, cited by Wiktionary, instead reconstructs a byform Proto-Indo-European *smh₂l-, which would also give šamalu- (“apple”).^[4]

Latin mālum (“apple”), later mēlum, was borrowed from Greek.^[1][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it means tree fruit in general, as in “the blossoms of the fruit” of an orchard; in the Odyssey it is the apple itself.^[5][2] Hesiod's Theogony names the golden apples of the Hesperides.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

With an adjective the word named other fruit: the “Cydonian apple” was the quince, the “Median apple” the citron, the “Persian apple” the peach and the “Armenian apple” the apricot; the quince could also be called simply μῆλον.^[2][3][9] Herodotus uses it of the apple-shaped ornament on a spear.^[6][2]

Metaphor took it to a woman's breasts in Aristophanes and Theocritus, to the cheeks in papyri from the 3rd century BC, to the tonsils in the physician Rufus, and to apple-shaped cups in the inventories of Delos.^[2][1][3] Coptic borrowed it as ⲙⲏⲗⲟⲛ, attested from about AD 300.^[11]

Medieval Greek kept the word, and it lives on as Modern Greek μήλο (mílo), the apple.^[12][13] The anatomical sense “Adam's apple” is a learned calque on French pomme d'Adam, and Modern Greek γεώμηλο (geómilo) “potato” was coined after French pomme de terre.^[13][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for tree fruit, the Odyssey for apples.^[5][2]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony tells of the golden apples of the Hesperides.^[2][6][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of an apple-shaped ornament on spear shafts.^[6][2][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses the plural for a woman's breasts.^[2][6][8]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri use it for the cheeks, and inscriptions from Delos for apple-shaped cups.^[2]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides names the quince, the citron and other fruits with it and a qualifying adjective.^[2][8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek μήλο (mílo) means the apple.^[13][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An apple; more generally any fruit of a tree.^[2][6]
2. With an adjective, other fruits: the quince (Κυδώνιον), the citron (Μηδικόν), the peach (Περσικόν), the apricot (Ἀρμενιακόν), the crab apple (ἄγριον).^[2]
3. The golden apples of the Hesperides.^[6]
4. An apple-shaped ornament on a staff or spear.^[6]
5. The seed vessel of the rose.^[2][1]
6. (plural, figurative) A woman's breasts.^[2][6]
7. (figurative) The cheeks; the tonsils; an apple-shaped cup.^[2][1]

Word family

• κοκκύμηλον (kokkúmēlon)
• μηλέα (mēléā)
• μηλοφόρος (mēlophóros)
• μῆλοψ (mêlops)
• ἁμαμηλίς (hamamēlís)
• ἐπιμηλίς (epimēlís)
• κεδρόμηλον (kedrómēlon)
• κιτρόμηλον (kitrómēlon)
• μελίμηλον (melímēlon)
• μηλίζω (mēlízō)
• μήλινος (mḗlinos)
• μηλίτης (mēlítēs)
• μηλίς (mēlís)
• μήλωθρον (mḗlōthron)