μέλεος

As for its accent, this word agrees with secondar adjectives like χρύσεος (khrúseos), λίθεος (lítheos), βόεος (bóeos), but conceptually it rather belongs to primary oxytones, like ἐτεός (eteós), κενεός (keneós), στερεός (stereós). Like ἐτεός (eteós) is from *ἐτεϝός (*etewós), this adjective could derive from *μέλεϝος (*mélewos). Further details are unclear.

μέλεος • (méleos) m (feminine μελέᾱ, neuter μέλεον); first/second declension

1. idle, useless, futile, vain

   Synonym: μάταιος (mátaios)

2. unhappy, miserable, wretched

• “μέλεος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μέλεος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μέλεος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μέλεος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• μέλεος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN