An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Meiler

by Friedrich Kluge

Meiler, m., ‘charcoal-kiln,’ from late MidHG. meiler, mîler, m., ‘stack of wood for making charcoal’; the î of the MidHG. prim. form is attested by ModHG. and LG. dials. The word cannot be derived from Slav. (Czech milíř, Pol. mieleřz, ‘charcoal kiln,’ are themselves of G. origin). Since it may have denoted orig. a definite number of objects (comp. Carinth. meiler, ‘a definite number of bars in a stack of pig-iron’), we might connect it with Lat. mîliarium, ‘thousand’ (see the similar case of Decher).