Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/meldǭ

This Proto-Germanic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Germanic

Alternative forms

• *muldǭ

Etymology

Put to Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- because of the mealy texture of its leaves. Compare the meaning range of the descendants of Old Norse mjǫll which is from the same root, Icelandic mjöll (“fresh snow”), Norwegian mjell, mjøll (“light, dry snow”), Swedish mjäll (“dandruff”), Danish mæld, mjæld (“fluff on corollae”). But note Proto-Slavic *lebeda of the same meaning range, and also Ancient Greek βλίτον (blíton, “purple amaranth; orache”); both are of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmel.dɔ̃ː/

Noun

*meldǭ f

1. a plant of the genus Chenopodium, goosefoot
2. a plant of the genus Atriplex, orache, saltbush

Inflection

ōn-stemDeclension of *meldǭ (ōn-stem)
	singular	plural
nominative	*meldǭ	*meldōniz
vocative	*meldǭ	*meldōniz
accusative	*meldōnų	*meldōnunz
genitive	*meldōniz	*meldōnǫ̂
dative	*meldōni	*meldōmaz
instrumental	*meldōnē	*meldōmiz

Descendants

• Proto-West Germanic: *meldā
  • Old English: melde
    • Middle English: mielde
      • Scots: milds, miles, myles
      • English: milds, miles, myles (dialectal Northern English)
  • Old Dutch: *melda
    • Middle Dutch: melde
      • Dutch: melde, milde
  • Old Saxon: maldia
    • Middle Low German: melde
  • Old High German: melta, melda, malta, multa
    • Middle High German: melte, melde
      • German: Melde, Melte, Melle, Malde, Malte, Milte, Milde, Molde, Mölde
    • → Medieval Latin: melta
• Old Norse: *mjaldi
  • Old Danish: melde, meld
    • Danish: mælde, mæld
  • Norwegian Bokmål: melde
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: melde
  • Old Swedish: molda, molla, mœld, mœldyrt
    • Swedish: målla, mäll, mäld, mäldyrt
• → Proto-Finnic: *malcca (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “Melde” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “myles”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• Björkman, Erik (1902) “Die Pflanzennamen der althochdeutschen Glossen”, in Zeitschrift für deutsche Sprache, volume 2, Straßburg: Karl J. Trübner, page 223
• Köbler, Gerhard (2014) “*meldō-, *meldōn”, in Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th edition
• Orel, Vladimir (2003) “*melđōn”, in A Handbook of Germanic Etymology‎^[2], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 266
• Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “Melde”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN