mell

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

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

Etymology 1

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

• mele

Verb

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

mell

1. (UK dialectal) Discourse; conversation.

Etymology 2

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

Verb

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], “Iuly. Aegloga 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

From Latin mel.

Noun

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

Noun

mell (uncountable)

1. The last grain cut at harvest; kern

See also

• mell of a hess
• pell-mell

 

Breton

Etymology

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

Noun

mell

1. joint

References

• 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

Alternative forms

• melly (dialectal or archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛlː]
• Rhymes: -ɛlː

Noun

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

   mellüreg ― thoracic cavity

4. (swimming) Ellipsis of mellúszás (“breaststroke”)..

Declension

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

• mellesleg
• mellett
• mellék
• mellény
• mellső
• mellű

 

Compound words

• mellbimbó
• mellbőség
• mellcsont
• mellhártya
• mellkas
• mellszobor
• melltartó
• mellúszás
• mellüreg
• mellvezeték

 

Expressions

• mellbe vág
• mellre szív
• veri a mellét

 

Further reading

• 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

Root
m-l-l
3 terms

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛll/

Etymology 1

From Arabic مَلَّ (malla).

Verb

mell (imperfect jmell, verbal noun mella)

1. to abhor, to dislike

Conjugation

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

From Arabic مَلّ (mall).

Noun

mell m

1. blight

Tarifit

Etymology

Borrowed from Moroccan Arabic مل (mall).

Verb

mell (Tifinagh spelling ⵎⴻⵍⵍ)

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

Conjugation

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• Verbal noun: amelli (“weariness”)

Yola

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛɫ/

Etymology 1

From Middle English mellen.

Verb

mell

1. to meddle
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Dinna mell wi' it.

     Don't meddle with it.

Etymology 2

Noun

mell

1. Alternative form of mele

References

• 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