melc'hwed

Breton

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *melw- (“soft”), from Proto-Celtic *meldo- (“pleasant, mild”), *mlido (“soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥dus (“soft, weak”); compare Breton melw (“snot”)); akin to Cornish melhwes, Welsh malwod. Also see Gaulish *multon- (“sheep”), which could be related. Cf. also Romanian melc (“snail”).

Noun

melc’hwed f (singulative melc’hwedenn)

1. snails
2. slugs

Synonyms

• (snails): maligorn
• (slugs): buoc’h lard

Hyponyms

• melc’hwed krogennek (“snail”)

Mutation

Mutation of melc'hwed

	unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard
singular	melc'hwedenn	velc'hwedenn	unchanged	unchanged
plural	melc'hwed	velc'hwed	unchanged	unchanged

Further reading

• Matasović, Ranko (2009) “meldo-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 262