μέλισσα

See also: Μέλισσα

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• μέλιττᾰ (mélitta) — Attic

Etymology

Potentially from *μελίλιχια (*melílikhia), from Proto-Indo-European *mélit (“honey”) + *leyǵʰ- (“lick”). Compare Albanian bletë and Sanskrit मधुलिह् (madhulih).

Alternatively from Proto-Hellenic *meliťťa, equivalent to μέλι(τ)- (méli(t)-) +‎ -ια (-ia).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /mé.lis.sa/ → /ˈme.lis.sa/ → /ˈme.li.sa/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /mé.lis.sa/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈme.lis.sa/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈme.lis.sa/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈme.lis.sa/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈme.li.sa/

Noun

μέλισσᾰ • (mélissa) f (genitive μελίσσης); first declension

1. a bee
2. (poetic) honey
3. poet (from their culling of sweet things from nature)
4. the priestess at Delphi
5. (Neoplatonist philosophy) any pure being

Inflection

First declension of ἡ μέλισσᾰ; τῆς μελίσσης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ μέλισσᾰ hē mélissa	τὼ μελίσσᾱ tṑ melíssā	αἱ μέλισσαι hai mélissai
Genitive	τῆς μελίσσης tês melíssēs	τοῖν μελίσσαιν toîn melíssain	τῶν μελισσῶν tôn melissôn
Dative	τῇ μελίσσῃ têi melíssēi	τοῖν μελίσσαιν toîn melíssain	ταῖς μελίσσαις taîs melíssais
Accusative	τὴν μέλισσᾰν tḕn mélissan	τὼ μελίσσᾱ tṑ melíssā	τᾱ̀ς μελίσσᾱς tā̀s melíssās
Vocative	μέλισσᾰ mélissa	μελίσσᾱ melíssā	μέλισσαι mélissai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Μέλισσᾰ (Mélissa)

Descendants

• Greek: μέλισσα (mélissa)

References

• “μέλισσα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μέλισσα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μέλισσα”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μέλισσα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• μέλισσα in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “μέλισσα”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • bee idem, page 69.
  • honey idem, page 404.
  • melissa idem, page 524.

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Greek

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek μέλισσα (mélissa).

Noun

μέλισσα • (mélissa) f (plural μέλισσες)

1. bee

Declension

Declension of μέλισσα

	singular	plural
nominative	μέλισσα •	μέλισσες •
genitive	μέλισσας •	μελισσών •
accusative	μέλισσα •	μέλισσες •
vocative	μέλισσα •	μέλισσες •

Related terms

• μέλι n (méli, “honey”)
• μελίσσι n (melíssi, “bee colony, beehive”)

See also

• κηρήθρα f (kiríthra, “honeycomb”)
• κυψέλη f (kypséli, “hive”)
• μπούμπουρας m (boúmpouras, “bumblebee”)