Everyday LifeGreek → English
Hydromel
/ˈhaɪdrəmɛl/noun
A drink of honey diluted in water, fermented into mead or taken fresh.
The Greek roots
ὕδωρ
hýdōr
water
μέλι
méli
honey
Literally: “honey water”
The story of the word
The Greek recipe is in the name and nowhere else: honey, water, wait. Ancient writers separate the fresh drink from the fermented one, and Pliny distinguishes hydromel from mulsum, honey in wine. Greek built a small family this way, οἰνόμελι for wine and honey and ὀξύμελι for vinegar and honey, and English borrowed all three. Only hydromel became a drink people actually order, usually under the older Germanic name mead.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
oxymeloenomelhydraulichydrate
In a sentence
The brewery sells a dry hydromel that tastes almost nothing like honey.