Non comparative uses of 'melius'

Latin Learning Latin
1

I’ve searched for the meaning of ‘melius’ in various online Latin dictionaries and besides ‘better’ I’ve found some dictionaries that say it can also be translated as ‘quite’ or ‘very’. However, when I check some good reference dictionaries such as the Oxford Latin Dictionary or Lewis and Short, I see that ‘melius’ is only considered as the comparative form of ‘bonus’. I have found no example in Latin texts where ‘melius’ could be translated as a non-comparative degree modifier such as ‘very’ or ‘quite’.

Does anybody here have some knowledge on this topic that can help me figure out whether the information in the online dictionaries is just wrong or there is something to it? Do you know of such uses in the Latin texts? I’m studying some medieval Romance languages and I see the use of some forms that are etymologically related to ‘melius’ that could indeed be seen as the equivalent of ‘very’ or ‘quite’.

Thanks in advance.

JM

2

Comparative forms, whether adverbial or adjectival, are sometimes only implicitly comparative. So melius might mean something like “better than you might have expected” or “quite well.” In suitable context it could even mean “too well.”
(Melius is actually the comparative of bene, adverbial, and of bonum, adjectival. The comparative of bonus, masc.nom.sing., is melior.)

3

Thanks for your response mwh.

JM