mellifluous, a.
(mɛˈlɪfluːəs)
[f. L. melliflu-us (f. mell-, mel honey + flu-ĕre to flow) + -ous.]
1. Flowing with honey, honey-dropping; sweetened with or as with honey. Now rare.
| 1485 Caxton Chas. Gt. 36 By the sauour of tho mellyfluous flowres alle the cytee was puryfyed. 1536 Primer Hen. VIII 146 In the mouth honie so mellifluous. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 919 The increase of Bees is more in regard of..the plenty of mellifluous dews. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 429. 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 239 Twelve large vessels of unmingled wine, Mellifluous. 1849 Thackeray Dr. Birch 41 And no one lacked, neither of raspberry open-tarts, nor of mellifluous bull's-eyes. |
2. fig. Sweetly flowing, sweet as honey. Chiefly of eloquence, the voice, etc.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 3 Thei [the nowble wryters of artes] ar to be enhauncede and exaltede..as makenge a commixtion of a thynge profitable with a swetenesse mellifluous. c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1446 O Iesu! þi mellyfluos name Mott be worcheppyd with reverens! 1573 L. Lloyd Marrow of Hist. (1653) 59 Such mellifluous words and sugred sentences proceeded out of his mouth that they were amazed. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iii. 54 A mellifluous voyce, as I am true knight. 1671 Milton P.R. iv. 277 Wisest of men; from whose mouth issu'd forth Mellifluous streams. 1791 Boswell Johnson 20 Mar. an. 1776, A work..written in a very mellifluous style. 1834 R. Mudie Brit. Birds (1841) I. 243 Its note is not so mellifluous and varied as that of the song thrush. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. iv. vi. §42 A smoothness of cadence, which though exquisitely mellifluous, is perhaps too uniform. 1874 Motley Barneveld I. iv. 167 The not very mellifluous title of Craimgepolder. |
b. of a speaker, writer or singer.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 264 b/1 Saynt Bernard the mellifluous doctor. 1598 F. Meres Pallad. Tamia ii. 281 b, Mellifluous and hony-tongued Shakespeare. c 1709–10 Henley in Swift's Lett. (1767) I. 17 As that mellifluous ornament of Italy, Franciscus Petrarcha, sweetly has it. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II v. ii. 283 Most mellifluous yet most impetuous of public speakers. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets xi. 373 The most mellifluous of all erotic songsters. |
Hence meˈllifluously adv., meˈllifluousness.
| 1812 R. H. in Examiner 30 Nov. 763/2 The versification of Pope is mellifluously flowing. 1820 Byron Juan v. i, In liquid lines mellifluously bland. 1821 New Monthly Mag. III. 445/1 A head by Corregio..abounding in that feminine loveliness and blending mellifluousness of colour and chiaro oscuro, which [etc.]. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. iv. 136 The little Elise, then just nine, set herself deliberately to chatter to me mellifluously for an hour and a half. |