melhwes
Cornish
Etymology
From Proto-Brythonic *melw- (“soft”), from Proto-Celtic *meldo- (“pleasant, mild”), *mlido (“soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥dus (“soft, weak”).
Compare Breton melw (“snot”)); akin to Breton melc’hwed, Welsh malwod. Also see Gaulish *multon- (“sheep”), which could be related.
Noun
melhwes f (singulative melhwesen or melhwyjen)
Synonyms
- (snails): bulhornes
- (slugs): melhwen, gluthvelhwen
Mutation
Mutation of melhwes
| Cornish consonant mutation | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unmutated | soft | aspirate | hard | mixed | mixed after 'th |
| melhwes | velhwes | unchanged | unchanged | felhwes | velhwes |
Further reading
- Matasović, Ranko (2009) “meldo-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 262