melum

Forms

mēlum n (genitive mēlī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μῆλον (mêlon, “apple”),^[2][3][1] the Attic form of the word,^[4][5] and so a doublet of mālum, which came from the Doric form μᾶλον (mâlon).^[1][5] The further origin of the Greek word is unclear;^[3] Köbler, following Walde and Hofmann, takes it to be a Mediterranean word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Petronius as its first source,^[3] but the TLL finds the form only from the 4th century on, chiefly in texts with popular features.^[2] Rufinus, translating Origen, chooses to say arborem meli “the tree of the melum”, using the Greek name, which he says is better known to the simpler Latin speakers than mālum.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In late Latin it competed with mālum for the apple, in agricultural, medical and dietary texts, and also named similar fruits: mela granata “pomegranates” and mela quidonia “quinces”.^[2] Its Romance descendants include Italian mela, Romanian măr and Friulian mêl,^[1][2] and Conte derives Italian melo “apple tree” from late Latin melum.^[4]

In medieval Latin Du Cange records melum cotoneum “quince” and melarium “apple orchard” in the Salic Law,^[6] and Köbler a silver apple used as an ornament.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 345–411/412 AD – Rufinus calls melum a Greek name better known to ordinary Latin speakers than mālum.^[2][3]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius names pira et mela, pears and apples.^[2][3]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus prescribes an apple baked or boiled.^[2][3]
• 511 AD – Anthimus recommends apples well ripened on the tree.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) An apple.^[2][1][4]
2. (Late Latin) Any similar fruit, as the pomegranate or quince.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A silver apple used as an ornament.^[3]

Related words

• mālum

Usage notes

The OLD records another mēlum, “a sheep”, from Ancient Greek μῆλον (mêlon, “small cattle, sheep and goats”), once in Varro's work on agriculture.^[7][4][5] Melum is also a by-form of melos “song, melody”.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.