מֶֽלֶךְ m.n. king, sovereign. [Related to Aram. מֶלֶךְ, Ugar. mlk, Arab. malik (= king), Akka. maliku, malku, c. st. malik (= prince; the word for ‘king’ is sharru, Ethiop. amlāk (pl.). The above words prob. derive from the Sem. base m-l-k (= to possess), appearing in Arab. malaka, Ethiop. malaka (= he possessed). Some scholars, thinking that the orig. meaning of the above nouns was ‘counselor’, connect them with מלך ᴵᴵ. cp. ‘Mameluke’, ‘Melchior’ and ‘Melchizedek’ in my CEDEL.] Derivatives: מֽלוּכָה, מַלֽכָּה, מַלֽכּוֹן, מַלְכוּת, מְלֶכֶת, מַמְלָכָה, מַמֽלָכוּת, prob. also מלך ᴵ. cp. מֹלֶךְ.