Everyday LifeGreek → English
Melon
/ˈmɛlən/noun
A large sweet fruit of the gourd family, eaten fresh.
The Greek roots
μῆλον
mêlon
apple, round tree fruit
πέπων
pépōn
ripe, sun-cooked
Literally: “ripe round fruit”
The story of the word
Greek μῆλον is any round tree fruit rather than the apple specifically, so μηλοπέπων is the ripe round one. Latin cut the compound to melo and English took the front half. The back half went its own way through Old French and turned into pumpkin, so melon and pumpkin are the two ends of a single Greek word. The golden apples of the Hesperides were quite possibly quinces.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
pumpkinmarmaladecamomile
In a sentence
The melon was cold enough to be worth the wait.
He cut the melon into wedges and salted them.