mellow

From Middle English melowe, melwe (“soft, sweet, juicy”), variant of Middle English merow, merwe (“soft, tender”), from Old English meru, mearu (“tender, soft, callow, delicate, frail”), from Proto-Germanic *marwaz (“mellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer(w)- (“to rub, pack”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian muur (“tender”), West Frisian murf (“tender”), Dutch murw (“tender”), German Low German möör (“tender”), German mürbe (“tender, soft”), Old Norse mör (“tender; aching”), Icelandic meyr (“tender”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛləʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛloʊ/

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• Rhymes: -ɛləʊ

mellow (comparative mellower or more mellow, superlative mellowest or most mellow)

1. Soft or tender by reason of ripeness; having a tender pulp.

   a mellow apple

2. Easily worked or penetrated; not hard or rigid.

   a mellow soil

   • (Can we date this quote?) Drayton

     flowers of rank and mellow glebe

3. Not coarse, rough, or harsh; subdued, soft, rich, delicate; said of sound, color, flavor, style, etc.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Wordsworth

     the mellow horn

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomson

     the mellow-tasted Burgundy

   • (Can we date this quote?) Percival

     The tender flush whose mellow stain imbues / Heaven with all freaks of light.

4. Well matured; softened by years; genial; jovial.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Wordsworth

     May health return to mellow age.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Washington Irving

     as merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound

5. Relaxed; calm; easygoing; laid-back.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess‎:

     Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.

   • 2014, Carrie Mesrobian, Perfectly Good White Boy, →ISBN, page 132:

     “It better be that mellow shit, Kerry,” Wendy said, biting into a cookie. “I have to work tomorrow.” “It's mellow shit. You've smoked this stuff before.”

6. Warmed by liquor, slightly intoxicated, stoned, or high.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

   • 2004, Cecil Young, One Canada, →ISBN, page 266:

     These boys were heavy smokers, and like my high school classmates, were always “high”, “cool” and “mellow.” They were never violent and were helpful and respectful to the adults in our village.

   • 2014, Julie McSorley, ‎Marcus McSorley, Out of the Box: The Highs and Lows of a Champion Smuggler, →ISBN, page 30:

     Late that night, everyone was sprawled on the sofas and bean bags in the lounge room, mellow because they'd smoked a couple of joints of hash.

• (tender): See Thesaurus:soft
• (not hard): yielding; See also Thesaurus:soft
• (not harsh): merry
• (genial): convivial, gay, genial, jovial
• (relaxed): easy-breezy, casual
• (slightly intoxicated): See Thesaurus:drunk or Thesaurus:stoned

• mellowness

mellow (plural mellows)

1. A relaxed mood.
   • 1997, Neil A. Hamilton, The ABC-CLIO companion to the 1960s counterculture in America‎, page 258:

     Yet, conversely, some people searched for the mellow ... Hope for flower power had faded, though the journey into the mellow did not

   • 1999, Kurt Andersen, Turn of the century‎, page 508:

     On their third date, Lizzie had actually said to him, "You're sort of harshing my mellow." It made him wonder if she might be stupid, and not just young.

• harsh one's mellow

mellow (third-person singular simple present mellows, present participle mellowing, simple past and past participle mellowed)

1. (transitive) To make mellow; to relax or soften.

   The fervour of early feeling is tempered and mellowed by the ripeness of age.

2. (intransitive) To become mellow.
   • 1592-94, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act IV Scene 4

     So now prosperity begins to mellow
     And drop into the rotten mouth of death.

• mellow out
• unmellowed