Meldi
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The Meldi were a Gallic tribe living in the region of modern Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
They are attested as Meldi by Caesar (mid-1st c. BC).[1], as Méldoi (Μέλδοι) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD),[2] Meldi liberi by Pliny (1st c. AD),[3] Méldai (Μέλδαι; var. Μέλγαι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD),[4] and as Ciuitas Melduorum (var. meldorum) in the Notitia Dignitatum (5th c. AD).[5][6]
The etymology of Meldi is unclear. Pierre-Yves Lambert compared it to Old Irish meld ('sweet, pleasant, agreeable'), with an u-stem meldu- possibly preserved in the late form Melduorum.[6] Alternatively, John T. Koch has proposed to derive it from a stem *meldh- ('lightning') attested in Welsh mellt ('lightning, thunderbolts'), and possibly in Gaulish Meldio, an epithet of Loucetios.[7] Depending on the interpretation, the ethnic name may be translated as the 'lightening people' or the 'sweet people'.[6]
The city of Meaux, attested as Meldorum civitas c. 400 AD (Meldis in the 7th c. AD, Miaux in 1275), is named after the tribe.[8]
