melhwes

Cornish

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 Breton melc’hwed, Welsh malwod. Also see Gaulish *multon- (“sheep”), which could be related.

Noun

melhwes f (singulative melhwesen or melhwyjen)

1. snails
2. slugs

Synonyms

• (snails): bulhornes
• (slugs): melhwen, gluthvelhwen

Mutation

Mutation of melhwes

unmutated	soft	aspirate	hard	mixed	mixed after 'th
melhwes	velhwes	unchanged	unchanged	felhwes	velhwes

Further reading

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