miele

Forms

miele m (plural mieli)^[1] The literary and regional form is mele, and Old Italian also had melle, Old Italian mel, Old Italian mielle and northern Old Italian amel.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *melem, from Latin mel (“honey”).^[1][4][5][6] The Vulgar Latin form added a final -e and left the neuter gender.^[1][7] The DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */ˈmɛl-e/ from cognates in every Romance language without exception.^[7]

These include French miel, Occitan mel, Catalan mel, Spanish miel, Portuguese mel, Sardinian mele, Friulian mil, Dalmatian mil and Romanian miere.^[5][8] The word is feminine in Romanian, Genoese, Lombard, Venetian, Ladin, Friulian, Catalan and Spanish, and in Genoese and Piedmontese it has absorbed the article.^[8] For the DÉRom the masculine is the older gender and the feminine a later analogical spread that still reached Romanian.^[7] The Tuscan form has the regular diphthong of stressed open /ɛ/ in an open syllable; the form without it prevails in Tuscany and Umbria in popular speech and in the whole South.^[9][10]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *meli and Proto-Indo-European *mel-it (“honey”).^[11][1] Cognates are Ancient Greek μέλι (méli), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ), Old Irish mil, Hittite militt-, Old Armenian մեղր (mełr) and Albanian mjaltë.^[11][1][5] The double ⟨ll⟩ of the genitive ⟨mellis⟩ is disputed: Leumann sees it as modelled on Latin fel (“bile”), while Sihler derives it from an older paradigm.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century, for honey, the sweet substance made by bees from flower nectar.^[3] DELI dates the form mele to 1241 (Matasala) and miele to a 14th-century Bible translation.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “sweetness” was already Latin, and Italian has it from the 13th century, in Uguccione da Lodi's melle.^[4] Old Italian also used the word for resins, ointments and other plant products, such as miele di cannamele (cane syrup) and miele di rugiada, a name for manna;^[3] miele rosato was honey mixed with rose petals.^[3]

Dante writes of the bee's zeal di far lo mele (to make honey).^[12] Modern Italian has luna di miele for the honeymoon and avere il miele sulle labbra e il veleno nel cuore for false sweetness.^[13][6][2] As an invariable adjective it names an amber-blond colour.^[6][9]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – First record, in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.^[3]
• 1241 – Mele is recorded (Matasala).^[4][6]
• 13th century – Melle “sweetness” in Uguccione da Lodi.^[4]
• Before 1288 – The derivative melato is recorded.^[5]
• 14th century – The form miele appears in a Bible translation.^[4]
• 1885 – Mieloso is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. honey: the thick sweet substance that bees make from the nectar of flowers, used as food and in pharmacy: miele di castagno.^{[6][2][14][1]}
2. Anything extremely sweet: Queste pesche sono un miele.^[6]
3. (figurative) sweetness, gentleness, sometimes false or hypocritical: È tutta miele quando vuole qualcosa.^[6][2][15]
4. (invariable) An amber blond colour; also as an adjective, of that colour: una borsa miele.^[6][9][1]

Word family

• mielato
• mieloso
• melato
• melario
• melata
• smielare
• smielatore
• melume

Related words

• mele
• idromele
• Latin mel
• French miel

Usage notes

Luna di miele is the first period of a marriage or the honeymoon trip.^[13][15] Vino di miele is another name for mead, idromele.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2455
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. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli