μέλος

Likely from a Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“limb”); compare Breton mell (“joint”), Cornish mal (“id”), Welsh cymmal (“id”), which are from Proto-Celtic *melsā (“knuckle”). For a semantic parallel (albeit from a different root), note Irish alt (“joint; paragraph”).^[1] See also μέρος (méros, “part, share”), of similar meaning and superficial pronunciation but different origin.

μέλος • (mélos) n (genitive μέλους or μέλεος); third declension

1. part of a body, limb, member, part

   Synonyms: κῶλον (kôlon), ῥέθος (rhéthos)

2. part of a group, member
3. song, strain
4. tune
5. melody

• ᾰ̓μελής (ămelḗs)
• μελῳδός (melōidós)
  • μελῳδία (melōidía)

• Greek: μέλος (mélos)

• “μέλος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μέλος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μέλος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μέλος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• μέλος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “μέλος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3196 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • accompaniment idem, page 6.
  • air idem, page 21.
  • carol idem, page 114.
  • chant idem, page 124.
  • lay idem, page 480.
  • lilt idem, page 492.
  • lyric poetry idem, page 506.
  • melody idem, page 524.
  • music idem, page 547.
  • ode idem, page 569.
  • song idem, page 793.
  • strain idem, page 822.
  • tune idem, page 900.
• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

From Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos).

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.los/

μέλος • (mélos) n (plural μέλη)

1. member (of organisation, group, etc)
2. (anatomy) limb, body member

• αρτιμελής (artimelís, “able-bodied”, adjective)