Etymologically
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melos

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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]
  • 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