honey
A sweet, viscous substance produced by bees from flower nectar.
Etymology
From Old English hunig, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą. The PIE origin of the Germanic word is uncertain — it may derive from *ḱn̥h₂-eḱ- or be a pre-IE substrate word. The wider PIE word for honey was *mélit, which gives Latin mel, Greek méli, and English "mellifluous." Honey was the primary sweetener of the ancient world and central to the production of mead, the ritual drink of the PIE peoples.
The Journey: (uncertain) → honey
*mélit
mel (mellis)
miel
mellifluous, molasses
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root (uncertain). They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | méli |
| Latin | mel |
| Gothic | miliþ |
| Hittite | milit |
| Albanian | mjaltë |
| Armenian | meghr |
| Old Irish | mil |
Did You Know?
English has two honey vocabularies: the native "honey" (Germanic, of uncertain PIE origin) and words from PIE *mélit through Latin — "mellifluous" (honey-flowing), "molasses," and "marmalade."