Etymologically
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melum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɛ.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmɛː.lum][1]

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]

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.