An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Mehl

by Friedrich Kluge

Mehl, neuter, ‘meal, flour, dust,’ from Middle High German mël (genitive mëlawes), neuter, Old High German mëlo (genitive mëlawes), neuter; corresponding to Old Saxon mël, Dutch meel, Anglo-Saxon mëlu (genitive mëlwes), neuter, English meal, Old Icelandic mjǫl (genitive plural mjǫlva), ‘meal’; the common Teutonic word for ‘meal’; Gothic *milwa (genitive *milwis) is by chance not recorded. It is a specifically Teutonic derivative of the root mal, ‘to grind,’ of which the form mel is authenticated by Slavonic and Irish; see mahlen. While the verb mahlen is common to West Aryan, the form of the word Mehl, from the root mel, is peculiar to Teutonic; it may also be remarked that the substantive is found in English, though not the corresponding verb. There is also a derivative from the same root in Keltic; compare Welsh blawd, Breton bleud (from mlât).