Etymologically
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mel

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɛɫ][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmɛl][1]

Forms

mel n (genitive mellis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *meli, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mélit (“honey”).[2][3] Cognate with Old Irish mil (“honey”), Welsh mel (“honey”), Hittite militt- (“honey”), Ancient Greek μέλι (méli, “honey”) (genitive ⟨μέλιτος⟩) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ, “honey”).[2][4] The geminate of the genitive ⟨mellis⟩ is disputed: Leumann took ⟨mell-⟩ as a secondary form after fel (“bile”), genitive ⟨fellis⟩, and Sihler derives it from an old paradigm with a stem ending in a dental.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Mercator: a resin from Egypt is to be swallowed ex melle, “in honey”.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the food it is honey as a preservative, as Columella says every kind of fruit can be kept in it, and the type of sweetness: Plautus' melle dulcī dulcior, “sweeter than sweet honey”.[4] Figuratively it is sweetness or charm, and in Plautus already a term of endearment, mel meum, “my honey”.[4][1] Pliny the Elder uses it of honey-like substances made by other insects or by plants.[4]

Church Latin glosses it “honey”.[5] It lived on into the Middle Ages in laws, charters and glosses.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of honey, as a type of sweetness and as an endearment.[4][3]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of honey as a preservative.[4][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of honey-like substances.[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Honey.[4][1][5]
  2. (figuratively) Sweetness, pleasantness.[4][1]
  3. (term of endearment) Sweet, darling.[4][1]
  4. A honey-like substance made by insects other than bees or by plants.[4]

Word family

  • melculum
  • mella
  • mellārius
  • mellātiō
  • melleus
  • melliculus
  • mellifer
  • mellifex
  • mellificium
  • mellificō
  • mellificus
  • mellifluēns
  • melina
  • mellārium
  • melliculum
  • mellilla
  • mellītulus
  • mulsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson