melt: [OE] Melt goes back ultimately to an Indo- European *meld-, *mold-, *mld-, denoting ‘softness’, which also produced English mild and Latin mollis ‘soft’ (source of English mollify and mollusc). Its prehistoric Germanic descendant *melt-, *malt- produced the verb *maltjan ‘dissolve’, which has become English melt. Malt comes from the same Germanic source, and smelt [15], a borrowing from Middle Low German, goes back to *smelt-, a variant of the base *melt-. => malt, mild, mollify, mollusc, smelt
melt (v.)
Old English meltan "become liquid, consume by fire, burn up" (class III strong verb; past tense mealt, past participle molten), from Proto-Germanic *meltanan; fused with Old English gemæltan (Anglian), gemyltan (West Saxon) "make liquid," from Proto-Germanic *gamaltijan (cognates: Old Norse melta "to digest"), both from PIE *meldh-, (cognates: Sanskrit mrduh "soft, mild," Greek meldein "to melt, make liquid," Latin mollis "soft, mild"), from root *mel- "soft," with derivatives referring to soft or softened (especially ground) materials (see mild). Figurative use by c. 1200. Related: Melted; melting.
Of food, to melt in (one's) mouth is from 1690s. Melting pot is from 1540s; figurative use from 1855; popularized with reference to America by play "The Melting Pot" by Israel Zangwill (1908).
melt (n.)
1854, "molten metal," from melt (v.). In reference to a type of sandwich topped by melted cheese, 1980, American English.
双语例句
1. Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in a bowl suspended over simmering water.
同时，把碗置于微沸的水上，将白巧克力放入碗中使其熔化。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The crowd around the bench began to melt away.
长椅周围的人群渐渐散去了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. When he heard these words, Shinran felt his inner doubts melt away.
听到这番话，欣兰感到他内心的疑虑顿时消散了。
来自柯林斯例句
4. In a large microwave-proof dish, melt butter for 20 seconds.