melimelum

Forms

melimēlum n (genitive melimēlī); second declension^[1] Usually found in the plural melimēla; the Greek form melimēlon also occurs.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μελίμηλον (melímēlon, “honey apple”),^[1][5][6][7] from μέλι (méli, “honey”) and μῆλον (mêlon, “apple”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro is the first to use it: apples once called mustea are now called melimela, he says.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Horace advises picking the reddish melimela under a waning moon,^[6] Columella and Martial mention them,^[6] and Pliny the Elder says they are named from their honey taste.^[6] Martial puns on the literal meaning “honey apples” when quinces soaked in honey are served.^[6] Caelius Aurelianus uses melimelon for a wine made from pomegranates.^[2]

In medieval Britain it named a sweet apple, a sweeting, and in the form malomellus the tree that bears it.^[8] Through Portuguese marmelo “quince” and its derivative marmelada it is the source of English marmalade.^[9][7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro says the apples once called mustea are now called melimela.^[6][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions them in the Satires.^[6][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder explains the name from their honey taste.^[6][7]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses melimelon for a pomegranate wine.^[2][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes the sweet apple.^[2][3][7]
• 1530s – English marmalade, ultimately from this word, is first recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sweet kind of apple, the honey apple (usually plural).^[6][2][1]
2. (form melimelon) A wine made from pomegranates.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A sweeting; the tree that bears it.^[8]

Related words

• mel
• malum²
• English marmalade

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com