Hindi

Noun

मधु • ‎(madhu) m ‎(Urdu spelling مدھو)

1. honey

   हर मधुमक्खी रानी के लिए मधु बनाता है।

   Every honeybee makes honey for the queen.

2. anything sweet (mead, sugar, etc.)

Synonyms

• शहद ‎(śahd)

References

• John T. Platts (accessed 10-23-2012), “A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English”, in (Please provide the title of the work)

Pali

Alternative forms

Noun

मधु n

1. Devanagari script form of madhu

Sanskrit

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *médʰu ‎(“mead”). Cognates include Ancient Greek μέθυ ‎(méthu), Lithuanian medùs, Old Church Slavonic мєдъ ‎(medŭ, “honey”), and Old English medu (English mead).

Noun

मधु • ‎(mádhu) n

1. anything sweet (especially if liquid), mead etc.
2. honey (said to possess intoxicating qualities and to be of 8 kinds)
   • RV 2.39.6a

     ओष्ठाविव मध्वास्ने वदन्ता सतनाविव पिप्यतं जीवसेनः |

     नासेव नस्तन्वो रक्षितारा कर्णाविव सुश्रुता भूतमस्मे ||

     oṣṭhāviva madhvāsne vadantā stanāviva pipyataṃ jīvasenaḥ |

     nāseva nastanvo rakṣitārā karṇāviva suśrutā bhūtamasme ||

     Even as two lips that with the mouth speak honey, even as two breasts that nourish our existence,

     Like the two nostrils that protect our being, be to us as our ears that hear distinctly.

3. milk or anything produced from milk (as butter , ghee etc.)
4. the juice or nectar of flowers , any sweet intoxicating drink , wine or spirituous liquor
5. sugar
6. water
7. pyrites
8. a kind of metre

Declension

Descendants

• Gujarati: મધ ‎(madh)
• Telugu: మధువు ‎(madhuvu)

References

• Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1898) A Sanskrit-English dictionary etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 0779