structural:expansion, structural:reformatting, information:classification
Etymology

The word mellitus (/ m ə ˈ l aɪ t ə s / or / ˈ m ɛ l ɪ t ə s /) comes from the classical Latin word mellītus, meaning "mellite" (i.e. sweetened with honey; honey-sweet). The Latin word comes from mell -, which comes from mel, meaning "honey"; sweetness; pleasant thing, and the suffix - ītus, whose meaning is the same as that of the English suffix "-ite". It was Thomas Willis who in 1675 added "mellitus" to the word "diabetes" as a designation for the disease, when he noticed the urine of a person with diabetes had a sweet taste (glycosuria). This sweet taste had been noticed in urine by the ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, and Indians.