meli

See also: Meli, měli, mēli, melī, meļi, mēļi, -meli, and мели

Hawaiian

FWOTD – 28 September 2023

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek μέλι (méli). Coined by missionaries for the 1839 translation of the Bible. The missionaries had considered transcribing honey into Hawaiian as either hani (“flirt, act coy”) or as honi (“kiss”). The two were considered unacceptable as being too impure and as such the missionaries went to Ancient Greek to coin a word.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.li/, [ˈmɛ.li]

Noun

meli

1. honey
   • 1839 Ka Baibala: Lunakanawai 14:8 (tr. Authorized Version of the Bible, Judges 14:8):

     A mahope iho hoi mai la ia e lawe ia ia, kipa ae la ia e nana i ke kino o ka liona, aia hoi, he poe nalomeli, a me ka meli pu maloko o ke kino o ua liona la.

     And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.

2. bee

   Synonym: nalo meli

Iban

Etymology

m +‎ beli

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meli/
• Rhymes: -li
• Hyphenation: me‧li

Verb

meli

1. to buy

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.li/
• Rhymes: -ɛli
• Hyphenation: mè‧li

Noun

meli m

1. plural of melo

Anagrams

• elmi, lime

Latin

Noun

mēlī

1. dative singular of mēlēs

Latvian

Etymology 1

See melis.

Noun

meli m

1. vocative/accusative/instrumental singular of melis

Etymology 2

See mele.

Noun

meli f

1. accusative/instrumental singular of mele

Etymology 3

Nominal derived from an old (unattested) verb *melt, from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, to crush, to pound”). The semantic evolution was probably: “something ground, crushed (to small pieces)” > “(unimportant) blabber, gossip” (a meaning attested for the verb malt in some contexts; compare also Russian молоть (molotʹ, “to grind; to babble, to gossip”)) > “lie, untruth.” Cognates include Lithuanian melúoti (“to lie, to gossip”), mẽlas, dialectal mãlas, Russian мел (mel, “chalk”), мелкий (melkij, “fine, small, petty”), German Mehl (“flour”), Middle Irish mell (“error, delusion”), Ancient Greek μέλεος (méleos, “futile, superfluous, useless”), Tocharian A smale (“lie, untruth”).

Noun

meli m (1st declension)

1. lie, falsehood, untruth

   nevainīgi meli ― an innocent lie, a fib

   skaidri meli ― a clear, obvious lie

   balti, salti meli ― an outrageous (lit. white, frosty) lie

   izgudrot, stāstīt melus ― to invent, to tell lies

   atklāt melus ― to detect, to reveal a lie

Declension

Declension of meli (1st declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	—	meli
accusative (akuzatīvs)	—	melus
genitive (ģenitīvs)	—	melu
dative (datīvs)	—	meliem
instrumental (instrumentālis)	—	meliem
locative (lokatīvs)	—	melos
vocative (vokatīvs)	—	meli

Derived terms

• melīgs, melīgums

Related terms

• melis, mele
• melot

Mapudungun

Mapudungun cardinal numbers

<  3	4	5  >
Cardinal : meli     Ordinal : meligeci

Numeral

meli (Raguileo spelling)

1. four

Samoan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English mail.

Noun

meli

1. mail

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Latin mel, perhaps via Spanish miel.

Noun

meli

1. honey

Serbo-Croatian

Participle

meli (Cyrillic spelling мели)

1. masculine plural active past participle of mesti

Sicilian

Alternative forms

• mieli (< Italian miele)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛli/
• Hyphenation: mè‧li

Noun

meli m

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

Swahili

Etymology

Borrowed from Omani Arabic ميل (mēl), from English mail, in reference to the steamers that brought mail.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Noun

meli (n class, plural meli)

1. ship
2. cargo

Tocharian B

Etymology

Compare Tocharian A malañ.

Noun

meli

1. (plural only) nose