meli

See also: Meli, měli, mēli, melī, meļi, and mēļi

Hawaiian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek μέλι (méli), from Proto-Indo-European *mélid. 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.

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

Synonyms

Italian

Noun

meli m

  1. plural of melo

Anagrams

Latin

Noun

mēli

  1. dative singular of meles

Latvian

Etymology 1

See melis.

Noun

meli m

  1. vocative singular form of melis
  2. accusative singular form of melis
  3. instrumental singular form of melis

Etymology 2

See mele.

Noun

meli f

  1. accusative singular form of mele
  2. instrumental singular form of mele

Etymology 3

Nominal derived from an old (unattested) verb *melt, from Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“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”).[1]

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
Derived terms

References

  1. ↑ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “melot”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN

Mapudungun

Mapudungun cardinal numbers
 <  3 4 5  > 
    Cardinal : meli
    Ordinal : ?

Numeral

meli (using Raguileo Alphabet)

  1. (cardinal) four

Samoan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English mail.

Noun

meli

  1. mail

Etymology 2

From Latin mel (“honey”).

Noun

meli

  1. honey

Sicilian

Etymology

From Latin mel, melle.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

meli m

  1. honey

Swahili

Noun

meli (n class, plural meli)

  1. ship
  2. cargo

Tocharian B

Etymology

Compare Tocharian A malañ.

Noun

meli

  1. (plural only) nose
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