melos

Forms

melos n (genitive meleos)^[1][2] Also neuter melum, genitive melī, and masculine melus, genitive melī.^[1][2] Cato, Pacuvius, Varro and Accius use masculine forms (quosdam melos, acres melos).^[3][4] Lucretius has the Greek plural melē, and Terentianus Maurus a genitive plural melōrum.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “song; limb”).^[1][3][5] Köbler traces it further to Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“limb; to join”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Naevius, quoted by Nonius: suave summum melos, “the sweetest song”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It belongs to early Latin and to poetry.^[3] Accius has the song of Silvanus,^[3] Horace a long song,^[3][2] and Persius, in his prologue, the “Pegasean song”.^[3] Augustine writes of “every melody of sweet songs” (melos omne cantilenarum suavium).^[4] In Ecclesiastical and medieval Latin it is a hymn or song.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[3][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the Greek plural melē.^[1][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Odes.^[3][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the melody of songs.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A song, tune or strain.^[1][3]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A hymn, a melody.^[6]

Related words

• melicus

Usage notes

Mēlos, genitive Mēlī (feminine), is the Aegean island of Melos,^[1][3] with the adjectives Mēlius and Mēlinus.^[3][4] Italian calls it Milo.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill