melvin

English - English

Definition of melvin in English English dictionary

A male given name transferred from the surname

And for some reason, they called me Pete. My mother, who probably dug up the name Melvin from some romantic novel about Englishmen drinking tea, cringed at the Pete.

A surname

Melville always wrote his name Melvinus in Latin, and he is often called Melvin in English. Hence some have concluded that Melvin, and not Melville, was his proper name. But they are merely different modes of pronouncing the same family appellation.

Melvin Allen Israel Blanc Melvin Jerome Melvin Kaminsky Calvin Melvin James Melvin Lunceford Tormé Melvin Howard

{i} male first name; family name; name of several towns in USA

a nineteenth century invention based on names like Melville, Malvina and Marvin

Related Terms

Melvin Calvin

born April 8, 1911, St. Paul, Minn., U.S. died Jan. 8, 1997, Berkeley, Calif. U.S. biochemist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He developed a system of using the radioactive isotope carbon-14 as a tracer element in his studies of the green alga chlorella. By halting the plant's metabolism at various stages and measuring tiny amounts of radioactive compounds present, Calvin was able to identify most of the reactions involved in the intermediate steps of photosynthesis, for which he was awarded a 1961 Nobel Prize. His research also included work in radiation chemistry and the processes leading to the origin of life

Melvin Jerome Blanc

born May 30, 1908, San Francisco, Calif., U.S. died July 10, 1989, Los Angeles, Calif. U.S. entertainer. He began his career as a musician on NBC radio, and in 1933 he joined a daily radio program, for which he created several voices to augment the cast. In 1937 he joined the cartoon department of Warner Brothers, and he took part in the development of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, providing the voices of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, and Bugs Bunny. In his 50-year career he supplied the voices for about 3,000 animated cartoons, including 90% of the Warner Brothers cartoons

Clarence Melvin Zener

{i} (1905-1993) USA physicist, namesake of the zener diode

Hyphenation

Mel·vin

Turkish pronunciation

melvîn

Pronunciation

/ˈmelvən/ /ˈmɛlvɪn/

Etymology

() Variant of the Scottish surname Melville, from a place name Malleville in Normandy, from Latin mala (“bad”) + Old French ville (“settlement”). * Used to Anglicize Mac Gille Beathain in Scotland and Ó Maoil Mhín in Ireland.