Mellow

How to spell mellow

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mellow

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mellow mean?

1. adjectivePleasantly soft, gentle, or relaxed in flavour, sound, light, or mood.
2. verbTo become or make gentler, softer, or more relaxed over time.

Mellow in a sentence

• adjective

  The cafe had a mellow atmosphere that made the afternoon drift by.

• verb

  He tends to mellow a little once the working week is over.

• adjective

  A mellow red wine paired well with the slow-cooked stew.

• verb

  A few years of practice can mellow even the sharpest critic.

Where does mellow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The exact origin of mellow is genuinely uncertain, but the best evidence points to a native English root. It appears in late Middle English as 'melwe' or 'melowe', describing fruit that had ripened into softness, and it is widely thought to grow out of the Old English word 'mearu', meaning 'soft' or 'tender'. Some scholars instead link it to 'meal', in the sense of the soft, crumbly texture of ground grain, which would explain the double 'l' echoing words built on that family. From the literal idea of ripe, soft fruit, the meaning broadened in the 1500s and 1600s to cover gentle wine, rich soil, warm light, and softened tempers, giving us the modern sense of being relaxed and unhurried. The doubled 'l' and the 'ow' tail (rather than the simpler 'o') are the main spelling traps, and they fall into line once you picture it as a cousin of 'yellow' and 'narrow'.

How the word is built

• mell- (soft, ripe)
• -ow (adjective ending, as in 'yellow', 'narrow')