英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

mellifluous [mellifluous 词源字典]: mellifluous: see flux, molasses
[mellifluous etymology, mellifluous origin, 英语词源]
mellow: mellow: see meal
melody: melody: [13] Greek mélos originally meant ‘limb’ (it is related to Cornish mal ‘joint’), but it was transferred metaphorically to a ‘limb or ‘part’ of a piece of music’, a ‘musical phrase’, and from there to ‘song’. It was combined with the element ōid- ‘singing’ (source of English ode) to form melōidíā ‘choral song’, which passed into English via late Latin melōdia and Old French melodie. The compound melodrama [19] is of French origin.
=> melodrama, ode
melon: melon: [14] Greek mēlon actually meant ‘apple’. But combination with pépōn ‘ripe’ (a relative of English peptic [17]) produced mēlopépōn, which was used for ‘melon’. This passed into Latin as mēlopepō, but the -pepō part was subsequently dropped, giving mēlō – source, via Old French, of English melon.
=> marmalade
melt: melt: [OE] Melt goes back ultimately to an Indo- European *meld-, *mold-, *mld-, denoting ‘softness’, which also produced English mild and Latin mollis ‘soft’ (source of English mollify and mollusc). Its prehistoric Germanic descendant *melt-, *malt- produced the verb *maltjan ‘dissolve’, which has become English melt. Malt comes from the same Germanic source, and smelt [15], a borrowing from Middle Low German, goes back to *smelt-, a variant of the base *melt-.
=> malt, mild, mollify, mollusc, smelt
member: member: [13] Latin membrum originally meant ‘part of the body, limb, organ’ (it has been connected tentatively with various words in other Indo-European languages meaning ‘flesh, meat’, including Sanskrit māmsám and Gothic mimz). But it was early broadened out metaphorically to ‘part of anything, one that belongs’, and brought that meaning with it via Old French membre into English.

The original sense still survives, though, particularly with reference to the ‘penis’ (an application that originated in Latin – membrōsus denoted ‘having a large penis’). Derived from Latin membrum was the adjective membrānus. Its feminine form membrāna was used as a noun meaning ‘skin covering an organ or limb’ – whence English membrane [16].
=> membrane
memory: memory: [14] The Indo-European base *men-, *mon- ‘think’ has contributed an enormously wide range of words to the English lexicon, from comment to mind. One particular semantic family denotes ‘memory’, and goes back to memor ‘mindful’, a Latin descendant of *men-. From it was derived the noun memoria ‘memory’, which has given English memory, memorize [16], memorial [14], and, via modern French, memoir [16]; and the verb memorāre ‘remember’, from which English gets commemorate [16], memorable [15], and memorandum [16] (not forgetting its abbreviation memo [19]).

Also from memor comes remember; and three other Latin descendants of *men-, meminisse ‘remember’, reminiscī ‘remember’, and mentiō ‘remembrance’, gave English memento [15], reminiscence [16], and mention respectively. The distantly related remind carries the same idea.
=> commemorate, comment, mention, mind, remind, reminisce
menace: menace: [13] Latin mināx meant ‘threatening’ (it was formed from a base *min- ‘jut’ which also produced English eminent and prominent, and hence etymologically denoted ‘overhanging’). From it was derived the noun minācia ‘threatening things’, which passed into English via Old French manace. The closely related demeanour comes ultimately from a word denoting ‘drive animals with threats’.
=> eminent, prominent
menagerie: menagerie: see manor
mend: mend: [12] Mend originated as a shortened form of amend [13] – or rather, of the Old French source of amend, which did not arrive in English until after mend. The Old French verb was amender, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *admendāre ‘remove faults, correct’. This in turn was an alteration of classical Latin ēmendāre (source of English emend [15]), a compound verb formed from the prefix exdenoting ‘removal’ and menda, mendum ‘fault, defect’. (Other Latin derivatives of mendum were mendīcus ‘injured’, which was used as a noun meaning ‘beggar’ – hence English mendicant [15]; and perhaps mendāx ‘speaking faultily’, hence ‘lying’, from which English gets mendacious [17].)
=> amend, emend, mendicant
menhir: menhir: see dolmen
menstrual: menstrual: [14] Etymologically, menstrual means ‘monthly’. It comes from Latin mēnstruālis, an adjective derived from mēnsis ‘month’ (a close relative of English month). From the same source comes menses [16], originally the plural of Latin mēnsis, and menopause [19] is based on the related Greek word for ‘month’, mén. Their gynaecological application comes, of course, from the ‘monthly’ flow of blood from the uterus.
=> menopause, month
mental: mental: see mind
menthol: menthol: see mint
mention: mention: [14] The etymological notion underlying mention is of ‘reminding’. For it comes via Old French from Latin mentiō, which originally meant ‘remembrance’ (it was a derivative of the Indo-European base *men-, which also produced English memory, remember, etc). It developed via ‘cause to remember something by speaking or writing of it’ (a sense still present in Middle English) to simply ‘refer to something’.
=> memory, mind, remember
menu: menu: see minute
merchant: merchant: [13] Latin merx denoted ‘goods for sale’. From it was derived the verb mercārī ‘trade’ (whose past participle was the source of English market). Mercārī was adapted in Vulgar Latin to mercātāre, whose present participle mercātāns produced the Old French noun marcheant ‘trader’, source of English merchant. Merchandise [13] comes from a derivative of marcheant; and other English descendants of Latin merx are commerce and mercury.
=> commerce, market, mercury
mercury: mercury: [14] The Roman god Mercury got his name from his original role as patron of trade and tradesmen: Latin Mercurius was a derivative of merx ‘goods for sale’ (source of English commerce and merchant). The inspiration for the medieval application of the term to the fluid metal was its use as a planet-name, which dates from the classical Latin period.
=> commerce, merchant
mercy: mercy: [12] Latin mercēs meant ‘payment, reward’. In the Christian era the notion of a ‘reward’ was taken up and reapplied metaphorically to the ‘compassion given freely by God to humankind’, and the word passed into Old French (in the form merci) with the broader sense ‘compassion’, and hence ‘forbearance from punishment’. English took it over and has continued to use it in much the same way, but its main role in modern French is as the word for ‘thank you’.
mere: mere: see mermaid