μέλας

Alternative forms

• μέλαις (mélais) – Aeolic
• μελανός (melanós) – Koine

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *melh₂-. The feminine -αινα (-aina) originates from *-ih₂; see -ια (-ia) Cognates include Sanskrit मल (mala, “dirt, filth, dust”), Latvian melns, and Old Prussian melne.

Pronunciation

Adjective

μέλᾱς • (mélās) m (feminine μέλαινᾰ, neuter μέλᾰν); first/third declension

1. dark in color; sometimes so dark as to lack color, black
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 5.262

     ἐν δέ οἱ ἀσκὸν ἔθηκε θεᾱ̀ μέλανος (ϝ)οἴνοιο

     en dé hoi askòn éthēke theā̀ mélanos (w)oínoio

     On [the raft] the goddess put a skin of dark wine.

2. (figuratively) evil, black, dark
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.834

     τὼ δέ οἱ οὔ τι πειθέσθην· κῆρες γὰρ ἄγον μέλανος θανάτοιο

     tṑ dé hoi oú ti peithésthēn; kêres gàr ágon mélanos thanátoio

     But the two did not listen at all, for the fates of black death were leading them on.

3. (figuratively) dark, obscure
4. (of the voice) indistinct
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Topics 106a.25
   • 170 CE – 250 CE, Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 4.44
   • 155 CE – 235 CE, Cassius Dio, Collected Works 61.20
5. (medicine) causing black secretions
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, περὶ νούσων 2.73

References

• μέλας in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• μέλας in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• μέλας in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μέλας in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• μέλας in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• μέλας in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3189 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• μέλας in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • black idem, page 80.
  • brown idem, page 101.
  • dark idem, page 195.
  • dim idem, page 224.
  • dingy idem, page 225.
  • dismal idem, page 235.
  • dusky idem, page 256.
  • gloomy idem, page 362.
  • sable idem, page 728.
  • sombre idem, page 793.
  • swarthy idem, page 846.