meolo

Old Galician-Portuguese

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin *medullum, from Latin medulla.

Noun

meolo m (plural meolos)

1. (only attested in the plural) brains
   • 1373 January 20, Fernán Martís, “AGora leyya o conto afalar de Pirius. por contar da mezcla q̃ fezerõ o gregos cõ el rrey Napus padre de palomads̃ ⁊ q̃ lleſ poꝛ el aueo” (chapter 464), in Cronica Troiana [Trojan Chronicle], translation of Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, page 178:

     Et atarõ a palomads̃ en hũa corda ⁊ enbiarõ no a fondo. 7 deſpous q̃e o uirõ ajuſo lançarõ lle grands̃ pedras en tal g̃ſa q̃ lle poſerõ os ollos fora ⁊ os meolos da cabeça ⁊ aſi morreu palomads̃ apedreado p g̃ra treỹçõ.

     And they tied Palamedes with a rope and threw him to the ground. And after seeing him down, they threw big stones in shuch a way that his eyes popped out and his brains came out of the head and thus Palamedes died by stoning for great treason.

   • 1390, Os Miragres de Santiago; republished as José Luís Pensado Tomé, editor, Os Miragres de Santiago. Versión gallega del Códice latino del siglo XII atribuido al papa Calisto I, Madrid: C.S.I.C., 1958, page 19:

     Entõ leuãtou hũu dos fariseus hũu pao de ferro que tomou et doulle cõ el tã grãde ferida na cabeça et estrulloulle todo los meolos et deitoullos fora

     Then, one of the Pharisees took one rod of iron and raised it and so strongly struck it against his head that he crushed his brain and threw it out

Descendants

• Fala: miolus
• Galician: miolo, meolo, molo
• Portuguese: miolo

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “meolo”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “meolo”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG