mellitula

From mellītulus (“honey-sweet, darling, lovely”), diminutive of mellītus (“honey-sweet, honeyed; darling”), from mel (“honey”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [mɛlˈliː.tʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [melˈliː.t̪u.la]

mellītula f (genitive mellītulae); first declension

1. Used as a term of endearment, literally meaning little honey or little sweetheart.

   Synonyms: mel, melculus, mellilla, mellītus

   • c. 125 CE – 180 CE, Apuleius, Metamorphoses 3.22:

     Patere, ōrō tē, […] impertīre nōbīs ūnctulum indidem, per istās tuās papillās, mea mellītula.

     I beg you, please hand me a little ointment from there, I beg you by these pretty breasts of yours, my little sweetheart.

First-declension noun.

• “mellitula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press