melão

Forms

melão m (plural melões)^[1] The 16th century wrote the plural meloens.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin mēlō (“melon”), recorded in the plural ⟨melões⟩ in the 14th century.^[3][2][4][1] The Latin word is a shortening of Latin mēlopepō (“a kind of melon”), attested from the late 4th century.^[1][5] It was borrowed from Ancient Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopépōn, “melon”), a compound of μῆλον (mêlon, “apple; tree fruit”) and πέπων (pépōn, “ripened by the sun”).^[3][1]

The same Latin word is Galician melón, Spanish melón, Catalan meló, French melon and Italian melone.^[1][6] Latin /l/ between vowels is usually lost in Portuguese, so Corominas takes the Portuguese word for a learned one.^[6] Nascentes suggests that the /l/ was kept because the word was felt as an augmentative of mel “honey”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is from the 14th century, in the plural melões.^[3] A letter of 1554 writes it melois.^[7] Vieira quotes a scene of Gil Vicente with friars “who come from stealing melons” (que vem de furtar melões).^[8]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa and Pereira give the word with Latin melopepo.^[9][10] Morais describes the common fruit with yellow, white or greenish flesh and names varieties after the rind.^[11][12] From the fruit the name passed to the plant itself.^[3][13] In Portugal it is a joking name for a bald or shaven head, and for the head in general.^[14][15] Wiktionary also records a colloquial sense “breast”.^[1]

Timeline

• 14th century – first record, in the plural melões.^[3]
• 1554 – melois in a private letter.^[7]
• 16th century – Cunha's date, with the plural meloens.^[2]
• 1611 – Barbosa translates it with Latin melopepo.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais describes the fruit.^[11]
• 1813 – first record of meloeiro, the plant.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The melon plant (Cucumis melo), a creeping annual of the gourd family; meloeiro.^[3][13]
2. The fruit of this plant, large and round or oval, with sweet juicy flesh: Ao almoço comemos melão com presunto.^[3][13][16]
3. (Portugal, informal) A bald or shaven head; the head.^[14][16]
4. (colloquial) A woman's breast.^[1]

Word family

• meloeiro
• meloa
• melão-de-são-caetano

Related words

• Latin melo
• Spanish melón

Usage notes

The phrase aquilo com que se compram os melões “what melons are bought with” is a popular way of saying “money”.^[16][17] The original Caldas Aulete records the proverbial bom como o bom melão “as good as a good melon” for something very pleasant.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. melão
3. ^ a b c d e f g Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. melão
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. melão
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. mēlopepō
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 11
7. ^ a b CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. melão
8. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 190
9. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. melão
10. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. melão
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 70
12. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 284
13. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. melão
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. melão
15. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. melão
16. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6063
17. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. melão