mell

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

From Middle English melen, mælen, from Old English mǣlan (“to speak, talk”), from mǣl (“speech, talk, conversation; dispute, contest, battle”) and māl (“suit, case, action, terms, agreement, covenanted pay”), both from Proto-Germanic *mahlą (“meeting, congress, speech”), alteration of *maþlą (“meeting, congress, speech”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to meet, encounter”). Cognate with Scots mele (“to speak, converse, tell”), Danish mæle (“to speak, utter”), Icelandic mæla (“to speak, say”), Old High German mahalōn (“to charge, accuse, proscecute”), German vermählen (“to wed, marry”). More at blackmail.

• mele

mell (third-person singular simple present mells, present participle melling, simple past and past participle melled)

1. (Britain dialectal, transitive) To speak; converse; tell; say.

mell (plural mells)

1. (Britain dialectal) Discourse; conversation.

From Middle English mellen, from Old French meller, mesler (“to mix, mingle”). Compare mêlée, meddle.

mell (third-person singular simple present mells, present participle melling, simple past and past participle melled)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To deal, concern oneself; to interfere or meddle.
   • c. 1495, John Skelton, "Vppon a deedman's hed":

     For wher so we dwell / Deth wyll us qwell / And with us mell.

   • 1819, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, ch. 32,

     “By Saint Thomas of Kent,” said he, “an I buckle to my gear, I will teach thee, sir lazy lover, to mell with thine own matters, maugre thine iron case there!”

See mellifluous.

mell (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) honey
   • Warner

     Ev'n such as neither wanton seeme, nor waiward, mell, nor gall.

From Proto-Celtic *melsā (“knuckle”); possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mel (“limb”).

mell

1. joint

• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill
• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

From Proto-Finno-Ugric *mälke (“breast”). Cognates include Southern Mansi møul, Central Mansi mäėl, Northern Mansi ма̄гыл (māγi̮l, “breast”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛlː]

mell (plural mellek)

1. (anatomy) breast

   Synonyms: emlő (formal or technical), kebel (literary, also figurative), csecs (dated, dialectal, or vulgar), csöcs (vulgar)

2. (anatomy, in certain compounds and phrases) chest

   Synonym: mellkas

3. (anatomy, attributive usage) thoracic

   mellüreg ― thoracic cavity

4. (sports, shortening from mellúszás) breaststroke