Indo-European root mele-

Published by Reblogs - Credits in Posts, December 8th, 2023

Clip source: https://www.etymonline.com/word/*mele-

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*mele-

*melə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to crush, grind," with derivatives referring to ground or crumbling substances and crushing or grinding instruments.

It forms all or part of: amyl; amyloid; blintz; emmer; emolument; immolate; maelstrom; mall; malleable; malleolus; mallet; malleus; maul; meal (n.2) "edible ground grain;" mill (n.1) "building fitted to grind grain;" millet; mola; molar (n.); mold (n.3) "loose earth;" molder; ormolu; pall-mall.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Hittite mallanzi "they grind;" Armenian malem "I crush, bruise;" Greek mylos "millstone," myle "mill;" Latin molere "to grind," mola "millstone, mill," milium "millet;" Old English melu "meal, flour;" Albanian miel "meal, flour;" Old Church Slavonic meljo, Lithuanian malu, malti "to grind;" Old Church Slavonic mlatu, Russian molotu "hammer."

Entries linking to *mele-

amyl (n.)

hydrocarbon radical, 1850 (amyle), from Latin amylum "starch," from Greek amylon "fine meal, starch," noun use of neuter of adjective amylos "not ground at the mill," that is, "ground by hand," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + myle "mill" (from PIE root *mele- "to crush, grind"). So called because it was first obtained from the distilled spirits of potato or grain starch (though it also is obtained from other sources). In 16c. English amyl meant "starch, fine flour."

amyloid (adj.)

"starch-like," 1843, coined in German (1839) from Latin amylum (see amyl) + Greek-derived suffix -oid. The noun is attested from 1872.