The "Word of the Day" & "Ellen, My Melon!"

Years ago, I found an interesting, very inexpensive wooden photo frame in the shape of a squatty-looking watermelon, painted to look like the same, with an an opening for what seemed to demand a very tight, close up facial photo. I knew exactly which photo was suited for this frame, which, as you can see is one of my daughter Ellen, then four.

As the months rolled past, I realized that because of this framed picture, and because of the rhyming sounds of Ellen with "melon," I was beginning to refer to Ellen via the nickname, "Ellen, my melon" or, shortened, "El-Mel." I would call her in from playing, call her down from upstairs for a meal or to make sure she was getting dressed for school. Ellen is now well past halfway through her 9th birthday year, and occasionally I still find myself hearkening back to the enduring "El-Mel" nickname days.

However, it wasn't until today that I learned something from Latin (I'm a Latin teacher) that made this less frequently used term of affection for my youngest even more special—in an ironically unique way. One of the automatic emails I currently receive as part of my general interest in language (Latin and Greek, especially), is a daily "Dictionary.com" feed of the English word for that particular day, along with various definitions and language of origin.

Here is today's entry, in part:

Word of the Day for Thursday, April 30, 2009

mellifluous \muh-LIF-loo-us\, adjective:

Flowing as with honey; smooth; flowing sweetly or smoothly; as, a mellifluous voice. Mellifluous comes from Latin mellifluus, from mel.

Then, looking up the noun's original Latin meaning, I found:

mel, mellis

honey; sweetness; darling

So, as you can easily see, what I have been calling my daughter all these years, the verbal expression of my heart's affection for her through the nickname "Ellen, my melon," actually turns out to be what the words actually mean: Ellen, my "honey," my "darling." I couldn't have planned it better if I had worked at it! So, "Ellen, my melon" it is . . . and always will be!