mel

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Homophones: Mel, mell

Shortening of melody.

mel (plural mels)

1. (psychoacoustics) A unit of pitch on a scale of pitches perceived by listeners to be equally spaced from one another.

• Mel scale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Latin mel (“honey”).

mel (uncountable)

1. Honey, when used as an ingredient in cosmetic products.

• EML, Elm, L.E.M., LEM, Lem, MLE, elm

Borrowed through Vulgar Latin from Latin milium.

mel m (definite singular meli)

1. millet

From Proto-Celtic *meli (“honey”) (compare Welsh mêl, Old Irish mil), from Proto-Indo-European *mélid, whence also Latin mel (“honey”).

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

mel m

1. honey

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl/

• Audio (Catalonia)

  (file)

From Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

mel f (plural mels)

1. honey

• aiguamel
• lluna de mel

Vulgar Latin melum, variant of mālum (“apple”).

mel m (plural mels)

1. (Balearics, anatomy) cheekbone

   Synonym: pòmul

mel

1. (archaic) Contraction of me el.

• “mel” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “mel”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “mel” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “mel” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): [ˈméːɬ]

mēl inan

1. second-person singular possessive singular of ēlli; (it is) your liver.

From Proto-Brythonic *mel, from Proto-Celtic *meli (“honey”) (compare Welsh mêl, Old Irish mil), from Proto-Indo-European *mélid, whence also Latin mel (“honey”).

mel m

1. honey

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

mel

1. second-person singular imperative of mlít

From Latin mīlle.

mel

1. thousand

From Old Norse mjǫl, from Proto-Germanic *melwą, from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, rub, break up”).

mel n (singular definite melet, not used in plural form)

1. flour

• “mel” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “mel” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

mel

1. eye

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese mel, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

mel m (plural meles)

1. honey

• “mel” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “mel” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “mel” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “mel” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “mel” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

mēl

1. Romanization of 𐌼𐌴𐌻

From Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

mel

1. honey

From Proto-Italic *meli, from Proto-Indo-European *mélid. Cognate with Ancient Greek μέλι (méli), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ), Old Armenian մեղր (mełr).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /mel/, [mɛɫ̪]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /mel/, [mɛl]

mel n (genitive mellis); third declension

1. honey
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.743-744:

     colligit errantēs et in arbore claudit inānī
     Liber et inventī praemia mellis habet.

     Liber gathers the wandering [bees] and confines them in a hollow tree,
     and he has the rewards of discovering honey.
     (See Liber – the Greek Dionysus or Roman Bacchus – and The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus.)

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Matthew 3:4:

     [...] esca autem eius erat lucustae et mel silvestre.

     And his food was locusts and wild honey.

   • c. 189 BCE, Plautus, Truculentus 371, (ed. by Friedric Leo, Plauti Comoediae vol. 2, 1896, Berlin: Weidmann):

     Heia, hoc est melle dulci dulcius.

     Ah! This is sweeter than sweet honey.

2. (figuratively) sweetness, pleasantness
   • c. 95 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 3.1.5:

     Sed nos veremur ne parum hic liber mellis et absinthii multum habere videatur

     But I fear that this book will have too little sweetness and too much wormwood.

3. (figuratively, term of endearment) darling, sweet, honey
   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 18:

     cor meum, spes mea / mel meum, suavitudo, cibus, gaudium

     My heart, my hope, my honey, sweetness, food, delight.

Third-declension noun (neuter, i-stem).

• (darling, honey): mellītus
• (sweetness): dulcēdō, dulcitās, dulcitūdō, dulcor, mellinia

Vulgar Latin: *melem m or f (see there for further descendants)

• “mel”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mel”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mel in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • somebody's darling: mel ac deliciae alicuius (Fam. 8. 8. 1)
    

• mele, melle
• mal, male, meyle (chiefly N)
• mæl, mæle, meal (early)

From Old English mǣl, from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą.

• IPA^(key): /mɛːl/, /mɛl/

mel (plural meles)

1. A time, occasion or event.
2. The occasion when a meal is consumed; mealtime.
3. A meal or feast.

• English: meal
• Scots: meal
• Yola: meale
• → Irish: béile

• “mēl, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• mjøl (also Nynorsk)

From Old Norse mjǫl.

mel n (definite singular melet)

1. flour, meal

• beinmel
• fiskemel
• hvetemel
• melaktig

• “mel” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

mel

1. present of mala

From Latin mel, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl/

mel m

1. honey
   • 13th century CE, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, E codex, cantiga 278 (facsimile):

     […] que ſon mais doceſ ca mel […]

     […] which are sweeter than honey […]

• Galician: mel
• Portuguese: mel

From Proto-Brythonic *mel, from Proto-Celtic *meli, from Proto-Indo-European *mélit.

mel m

1. honey

• Middle Welsh: mel
  • Welsh: mêl

From Old Portuguese mel, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

Compare Galician mel, Spanish miel.

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɛl, (Brazil) -ɛw
• Hyphenation: mel

mel m (plural méis or meles)

1. honey

For quotations using this term, see Citations:mel.

• melado
• melar
• papa-mel (tayra)

From English mel.

mel m (plural meli)

1. mel

• (Sursilvan) mèl
• (Sutsilvan) meal
• (Surmiran) mêl

From Vulgar Latin *melem, from Latin mel.

mel m (plural mels)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun) honey
2. (Rumantsch Grischun) jam

• (honey): mel d'avieuls

Borrowed from French mer (“sea”), with the 'r' turned into 'l'.

mel (nominative plural mels)

1. sea

mel

1. Alternative spelling of meel

mel

1. Alternative spelling of meel