mel

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mel"

Translingual

Symbol

mel

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Central Melanau.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Central Melanau terms

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Homophones: Mel, mell

Etymology 1

Shortening of melody.

Noun

mel (plural mels)

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

Further reading

• Mel scale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Latin mel (“honey”). Doublet of mell.

Noun

mel (uncountable)

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

Anagrams

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

Albanian

Etymology

Borrowed through Vulgar Latin from Latin milium.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

mel m (definite meli)

1. common millet

Breton

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

Noun

mel m

1. honey

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈmɛl]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

mel f (plural mels)

1. honey

Derived terms

• aiguamel
• lluna de mel
• melat
• melós

Related terms

• mel·lífer
• mel·liflu

Etymology 2

Inherited from Late Latin mēlum, variant of mālum (“apple”).

Noun

mel m (plural mels)

1. (Balearic, anatomy) cheekbone

   Synonym: pòmul

Etymology 3

Pronoun

mel

1. (archaic) contraction of me +‎ el (in medieval Catalan, nowadays written as me'l)

Further reading

• “mel”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “mel”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “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.

Classical Nahuatl

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈméːɬ]

Noun

mēl inan

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

Cornish

Etymology

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”).

Noun

mel m

1. honey

Derived terms

• arth mel (“sun bear”)
• gwenen mel (“honeybees”)
• kriben vel (“honeycomb”)
• mel kriv (“raw honey”)
• melvis (“honeymoon”)

Mutation

Mutation of mel

unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard	mixed	mixed after 'th
mel	vel	unchanged	unchanged	fel	vel

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

Verb

mel

1. second-person singular imperative of mlít

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin mīlle.

Numeral

mel

1. thousand

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse mjǫl, from Proto-Germanic *melwą, from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, rub, break up”). Related to male (“grind, crush”), mølle (“mill”) (via Latin), and to muld (“soil”).

Noun

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

1. flour

Declension

Declension of mel

neuter gender	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	mel	melet
genitive	mels	melets

Further reading

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

Dhuwal

Noun

mel

1. eye

Galician

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

Noun

mel m (plural meles)

1. honey

Derived terms

• augamel
• melado
• melaza
• meleiro
• melindre

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “mel”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “mel”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “mel”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “mel”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “mel”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Gothic

Romanization

mēl

1. romanization of 𐌼𐌴𐌻

Istriot

Etymology

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

Noun

mel

1. honey

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1159: “il miele” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *meli, from Proto-Indo-European *mel-it (“honey”), with the athematic suffix *-it that indicates comestible substances (compare Proto-Indo-European *h₂élbʰ-it (“barley”) or Proto-Indo-European *sép-it (“wheat”)). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέλι (méli), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ), Old Armenian մեղր (mełr), Hittite [script needed] (milit), Luwian [script needed] (mallit-).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛɫ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

Noun

mel n (genitive mellis); third declension

1. 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.

   • 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.

2. (figuratively) sweetness, pleasantness
   • c. 35 CE – 100 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 fragmenta.0.17–18:

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

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

Declension

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

	singular	plural
nominative	mel	mella
genitive	mellis	mellium mellum
dative	mellī	mellibus
accusative	mel	mella
ablative	melle mellī	mellibus
vocative	mel	mella

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• melculum
• melinus
• mella
• mellāceum
• mellārius
• melleus
• melliculus
• mellifer
• mellifex
• mellificus
• mellifluēns
• mellifluus
• melliger
• mellīgō
• mellinia
• mellītus
• mellō
• mellōsus

Related terms

• melina
• mellārium
• mellātiō
• melliculum
• mellificium
• mellificō
• mellilla
• mellītulus

Descendants

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

References

• “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^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • somebody's darling: mel ac deliciae alicuius (Fam. 8. 8. 1)
    

Malay

Etymology

From English mail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmel/ [ˈmel]

Noun

mél (Jawi spelling ميل, plural mel-mel or mel²)

1. (uncommon, mostly in compounds) mail

   Synonyms: pos, surat

Derived terms

• e-mel
• mel elektronik
• mel udara

Further reading

• "mel" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017

Middle English

Alternative forms

• mele, melle
• mal, male, meyle (chiefly Northern)
• mæl, mæle, meal (Early Middle English)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̝ːl/

Noun

mel (plural meles)

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

Descendants

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

References

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

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• mjøl (also Nynorsk)

Etymology

From Danish mel, from Old Norse mjǫl.

Noun

mel n (definite singular melet)

1. flour, meal

Derived terms

• beinmel
• fiskemel
• hvetemel
• melaktig

References

• “mel” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

mel

1. present of mala

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meːl/

Noun

mēl m (Anglian, late Kentish)

1. alternative form of mǣl

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	mēl	mēl
accusative	mēl	mēl
genitive	mēles	mēla
dative	mēle	mēlum

Old Galician-Portuguese

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl/

Noun

mel m (uncountable)

1. honey
   • a. 1284, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Códice de los músicos, cantiga 278 (facsimile):

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

     […] which are sweeter than honey […]

Descendants

• Galician: mel
• Portuguese: mel

References

• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “mel[[:>:|:>:]]”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “mel”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2020–2026), “mel”, in Vocabulário histórico-cronológico do português medieval [Historical and chronological vocabulary of Medieval Portuguese] (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa

Old Welsh

Etymology

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

Noun

mel m

1. honey

Descendants

• Middle Welsh: mel
  • Welsh: mêl

Portuguese

mel

Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese mel m, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n. Cognates include Galician mel m and Spanish miel f.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛw/ [ˈmɛʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl/ [ˈmɛɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl/ [ˈmɛɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.li/

• Audio:

  (file)

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

Noun

mel m (countable and uncountable, plural méis or meles)

1. honey

   Synonym: mel de abelha

   • 2012, Luís Fernando Veríssimo, “A tia que caiu no Sena”, in Diálogos Impossíveis, Rio de Janeiro: Editora Objetiva, →ISBN, page 61:

     A conversa era sobre parentes, os parentes estranhos, interessantes ou, por qualquer razão, notáveis de cada um. Alguém já tinha contado que um parente comia favo de mel com abelha dentro.

     The conversation was about relatives, each one's weird, interesting or, for some reason, remarkable relatives. Someone had already said that a relative [of his] ate honeycomb with the bee inside.

2. (chiefly Cape Verde, Madeira, São Tomé and Príncipe) molasses

   Synonyms: mel de cana, melaço

Usage notes

• In many regions where the sugarcane industry is or was of particular importance, the word mel without any adjectives often refers to molasses, which most other dialects call melaço or mel de cana (literally, “cane honey”) instead. In those regions, bee's honey is often specifically called mel de abelha.

Derived terms

• mel de abelha
• mel de cana
• melaço
• melado
• melar
• meloso
• papa-mel

Further reading

• “mel”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “mel”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English mel.

Noun

mel m (plural meli)

1. mel

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	mel	melul		meli	melii
genitive-dative	mel	melului		meli	melilor
vocative	melule			melilor

Romansch

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

Noun

mel m (plural mels)

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

Synonyms

• (honey): mel d'avieuls

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1159: “il miele” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

Volapük

Etymology

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

Noun

mel (nominative plural mels)

1. sea

Declension

Declension of mel

	singular	plural
nominative	mel	mels
genitive	mela	melas
dative	mele	meles
accusative	meli	melis
vocative 1	o mel!	o mels!
predicative 2	melu	melus

¹ status as a case is disputed
² in later, non-classical Volapük only