Melite

Melite

1. An ancient city in what is now Malta.

Unadapted borrowing from Ancient Greek Μελῐ́τη (Melĭ́tē), q.v.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛ.lɪ.teː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛː.li.te]

Melitē f sg (genitive Melitēs); first declension

1. a city in Magnesia
   • 77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 4.32:

     Thessaliae adnexa Magnesia est, cuius fons Libethra, oppida Iolcus, Ormenium, Pyrra, Methone, Olizon, promunturium Sepias, oppida Castana, Spalathra, promunturium Aeantium, oppida Meliboea, Rhizus, Erymnae, ostium Penii, oppida Homolium, Orthe, Iresiae, Pelinna, Thaumacie, Gyrton, Crannon, Acharne, Dotion, Melite, Phylace, Potniae.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. alternative form of Melita

First-declension noun (feminine, Greek-type, nominative singular in -ē), with locative, singular only.

• English: Melite

• “Mĕlĭtē”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Mĕlĭtē”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 962.

From Latin Melita.

Melite f

1. Malta (island)
   • 1575, Cosmographie universelle, page 1877:

     Les Pelagies (il le dit pour les diſtinguer des Lotophagites) iſles Africanes ſont celles cy Coßire iſle, & cité, Glaucon, (c’est Gozo) iſle, & cité, & Melite, (c’est Malthe) en laquelle y a cité.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• French: Mélite