μῆλον

Uncertain. Multiple theories have been put forth.

Beekes declares it to be a Pre-Greek Mediterranean substrate borrowing, comparing it with Hittite 𒈠𒀀𒄴𒆷𒀸 (māḫlaš, “grapevine”).[1]

Kroonen (2016) reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European byform *smh₂l-, from which he also derives Hittite 𒊭𒈠𒇻 (šamalu-), 𒊭𒄠𒇻 (šamlu-) "apple". He also connects this IE form with Proto-Kartvelian *msxal- (“pear”) and proposes that the Indo-European words may have come from a metathesis of that Kartvelian word. [2]

Fenwick (2016) also argues for an ultimate Indo-European origin, though with differing details, and views the Kartvelian term rather as an IE loan. She reconstructs PIE *méh₂lo- (“cultivated tree, cultivated vine”), with a variant *móh₂lo- (“id.”)—cp. Hittite 𒈠𒀀𒄴𒆷𒀸 (māḫlaš, “grapevine”), Lydian μῶλαξ "type of wine", and Armenian մոլ (mol, “sucker, runner, stolon”)—and considers them as thematised from an acrostatic root noun in *móh₂l- (“type of culturally important plant”), with a range of other derived forms. She further treats *móh₂l- itself as a possible archaic *-l- deverbal from *meh₂- (“to grow, increase, mature, be fruitful”), comparing also *webʰl- (“weevil, beetle, worm”) alongside *webʰ- (“to weave”)).[3]

• μᾶλον (mâlon) – Doric, Aeolic

μῆλον • (mêlon) n (genitive μήλου); second declension

1. apple
2. any fruit from a tree
3. (figuratively, in the plural) a woman's breast
4. (in the plural) cheeks

• Greek: μήλο (mílo)
• Tsakonian: μάλι (máli)
• → Proto-Albanian: *mālā (via Doric μᾶλα (mâla))
  • Albanian: mollë
• → Latin: mālum, mēlum, mēlo
  • → Translingual: Malus

Unknown; perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₁l- (“small animal”). Compare Old Irish mil (“small animal”), Dutch maal (“young cow”), Old Church Slavonic малъ (malŭ), Old English smæl (English small).

• μεῖλον (meîlon) – Boeotian

μῆλον • (mêlon) n (genitive μήλου); second declension

1. sheep
2. goat
3. beast

• “μῆλον (Α)”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μῆλον (Β)”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μῆλον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μῆλον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μῆλον in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “μῆλον”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• μῆλον 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.
  • apple idem, page 35.