melum

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μῆλον (mêlon). Compare mālum, from dialectal Ancient Greek μᾶλον (mâlon). Due to the loss of distinction between long and short a in Vulgar Latin, it would have become homophonous with malum (“bad”), which would have motivated such borrowing. First attested in Petronius.

• (Proto-Romance) IPA^(key): /ˈmelu/

mēlum n (genitive mēlī); second declension (Late Latin)

1. apple

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• mālum

• *mēlus

• Aromanian: mer, meru
• Italian: mela
• Friulian: mêl
• Neapolitan: mìlo, méla
• Romanian: măr
• Romansch: mel, mail, meil
• Spanish: mela

• Alkire, Ti; Rosen, Carol (2010) Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction, University of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 258
• Grandgent, Charles Hall (1907) An Introduction to Vulgar Latin (Heath's Modern Language Series), D. C. Heath & Company, page 195