See also: Mell, mẹll, mełł, mèll, and mëll

English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /mɛl/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛl

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English melen, mælen, from Old English mǣlan (to speak, talk), from mǣl (speech, talk, conversation; dispute, contest, battle) and māl (suit, case, action, terms, agreement, covenanted pay), both from Proto-Germanic *mahlą (meeting, congress, speech), alteration of *maþlą (meeting, congress, speech), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (to meet, encounter). Cognate with Scots mele (to speak, converse, tell), Danish mæle (to speak, utter), Icelandic mæla (to speak, say), Old High German mahalōn (to charge, accuse, proscecute), German vermählen (to wed, marry). More at blackmail.

Alternative forms edit

Verb edit

mell (third-person singular simple present mells, present participle melling, simple past and past participle melled)

  1. (British, dialectal, transitive) To say (something); to speak, to tell.

Noun edit

mell

  1. (UK dialectal) Discourse; conversation.

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English mellen, medlen, from Old French meller, mesler (to mix, mingle). Doublet of meddle.

Verb edit

mell (third-person singular simple present mells, present participle melling, simple past and past participle melled)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete or dialectal) To deal, concern oneself; to interfere or meddle.
    • c. 1495, John Skelton, Vppon a deedman's hed:
      For wher so we dwell / Deth wyll us qwell / And with us mell.
    • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iulye. Ægloga Septima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: [], London: [] Hugh Singleton, [], →OCLC; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender [], London: John C. Nimmo, [], 1890, →OCLC, folio 29, recto:
      Here is a great deale of good matter, / loſt for lacke of telling, / Now ſicker I see, thou doeſt but clatter: / harme may come of melling.
    • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. [], volume III, Edinburgh: [] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. [], →OCLC, page 57:
      “By Saint Thomas of Kent,” said he, “an I buckle to my gear, I will teach thee to mell with thine own matters, maugre thine iron case there.”

Etymology 3 edit

From Latin mel.

Noun edit

mell (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Honey.
    • 1586, William Warner, Albion's England:
      Ev'n such as neither wanton seeme, nor waiward, mell, nor gall.

Etymology 4 edit

Noun edit

mell (uncountable)

  1. The last grain cut at harvest; kern

See also edit

Breton edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Celtic *melsā (knuckle); possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mel (limb).

Noun edit

mell

  1. joint

References edit

  • Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
  • Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

Hungarian edit

Alternative forms edit

  • melly (dialectal or archaic)

Etymology edit

From Proto-Finno-Ugric *mälke. Cognates include Southern Mansi [script needed] (møul), Eastern Mansi мавлын (mawlyn) and Northern Mansi ма̄гыл (māgyl, breast).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

mell (plural mellek)

  1. (anatomy) breast
    Synonyms: (formal or technical) emlő, (literary, also figurative) kebel, (dated, dialectal, or vulgar) csecs, (vulgar) csöcs, (colloquial or slang) cici
  2. (anatomy, in certain compounds and phrases) chest
    Synonym: mellkas
  3. (anatomy, attributive usage) thoracic
    mellüregthoracic cavity
  4. (swimming) Ellipsis of mellúszás (breaststroke)..

Declension edit

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative mell mellek
accusative mellet melleket
dative mellnek melleknek
instrumental mellel mellekkel
causal-final mellért mellekért
translative mellé mellekké
terminative mellig mellekig
essive-formal mellként mellekként
essive-modal
inessive mellben mellekben
superessive mellen melleken
adessive mellnél melleknél
illative mellbe mellekbe
sublative mellre mellekre
allative mellhez mellekhez
elative mellből mellekből
delative mellről mellekről
ablative melltől mellektől
non-attributive
possessive - singular
mellé melleké
non-attributive
possessive - plural
melléi mellekéi
Possessive forms of mell
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. mellem melleim
2nd person sing. melled melleid
3rd person sing. melle mellei
1st person plural mellünk melleink
2nd person plural melletek melleitek
3rd person plural mellük melleik

Derived terms edit

Compound words
Expressions

Further reading edit

  • mell in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Maltese edit

Root
m-l-l
3 terms

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Arabic مَلَّ (malla).

Verb edit

mell (imperfect jmell, verbal noun mella)

  1. to abhor, to dislike
Conjugation edit
    Conjugation of mell
singular plural
1st person 2nd person 3rd person 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
perfect m mellejt mellejt mell mellejna mellejtu mellew
f mellet
imperfect m mmell tmell jmell mmellu tmellu jmellu
f tmell
imperative mell mellu

Etymology 2 edit

From Arabic مَلّ (mall).

Noun edit

mell m

  1. blight

Tarifit edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Moroccan Arabic مل (mall).

Pronunciation edit

  This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Verb edit

mell (Tifinagh spelling ⵎⴻⵍⵍ)

  1. (transitive) to detest, to be repulsed, to dislike
  2. (transitive) to be fed up

Conjugation edit

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms edit

  • Verbal noun: amelli (weariness)

Yola edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English mellen.

Verb edit

mell

  1. to meddle
    • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:
      Dinna mell wi' it.
      Don't meddle with it.

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

mell

  1. Alternative form of mele

References edit

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 56