μέλι

See also: μέλη

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *méli, from Proto-Indo-European *mélit (“honey”). Cognates include Latin mel, Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ), and Old Armenian մեղր (mełr).^[1]

Pronunciation

 

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

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

Noun

μέλῐ • (méli) n (genitive μέλῐτος); third declension

1. honey
2. anything sweet

Usage notes

μέλι (méli) is also sometimes used as the dative singular.

Inflection

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ μέλῐ tò méli	τὼ μέλῐτε tṑ mélite	τᾰ̀ μέλῐτᾰ tà mélita
Genitive	τοῦ μέλῐτος toû mélitos	τοῖν μελῐ́τοιν toîn melítoin	τῶν μελῐ́των tôn melítōn
Dative	τῷ μέλῐτῐ tôi méliti	τοῖν μελῐ́τοιν toîn melítoin	τοῖς μέλῐσῐ / μέλῐσῐν toîs mélisi(n)
Accusative	τὸ μέλῐ tò méli	τὼ μέλῐτε tṑ mélite	τᾰ̀ μέλῐτᾰ tà mélita
Vocative	μέλῐ méli	μέλῐτε mélite	μέλῐτᾰ mélita
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Third declension of τὸ μέλῐ; τοῦ μέλῐτος (Attic)

Derived terms

• θᾰλᾰσσόμελῐ (thalassómeli)
• μελῐ́γλωσσος (melíglōssos)
• μελῐ́κρᾱτον (melíkrāton)
• μελίμηλον (melímēlon)
• μελῐ́πτορθος (melíptorthos)
• μέλισσᾰ (mélissa)
• Μελίτη (Melítē)
• μελίτινος (melítinos)
• μελίφρων (melíphrōn)
• ὑδρόμελι (hudrómeli)

 

Descendants

• Greek: μέλι (méli)
• Mariupol Greek: мел (mjel)
• → Hawaiian: meli

References

1. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μέλι, -ιτος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 925-6

Further reading

• “μέλι”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μέλι”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μέλι”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μέλι 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
• μέλι in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “μέλι”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3192 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • honey idem, page 404.
  • syrup idem, page 851.
• “μέλι”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μέλι (méli), from Proto-Indo-European *mélid.

Compare Mariupol Greek мел (mjel).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.li/
• Homophones: μέλει (mélei), μέλη (méli), μέλλει (méllei)

Noun

μέλι • (méli) n (plural μέλια)

1. honey

Declension

Declension of μέλι

	singular	plural
nominative	μέλι (méli)	μέλια (mélia)
genitive	μελιού (melioú)	-
accusative	μέλι (méli)	μέλια (mélia)
vocative	μέλι (méli)	μέλια (mélia)

Coordinate terms

• κυψέλη f (kypséli, “beehive”)
• κηρήθρα f (kiríthra, “honeycomb”)

Related terms

• μέλισσα f (mélissa, “bee”)
• μελίσσι n (melíssi, “bee colony, beehive”)

Further reading

• μέλι on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el
• μέλι, in Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής [Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek], Triantafyllidis Foundation, 1998 at the Centre for the Greek language