THE ETYMOLOGY NERD
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ADMIRING A MIRACLE

3/3/2017

2 Comments

 
The word admire has, uh, miraculous origins. A loanword from French admirar, it stems from Latin, where it was the word admiror. This is a portmanteau, of two other Latin words, ad, and miror. Ad is a common Latin prefix, meaning "towards", and that's generally been Indo-European for about eternity. Miror, the source of Spanish mirar, "look", but not English mirror, meant "to marvel at", from mirus, "astonishing".  Something astonishing in a wonderful sense is something to smile at, so it makes sense that it comes from the Proto-Indo-European word smeyros, "smiling or laughing" (through Proto-Italic smeiros). That's already an admirable etymology, but let's go back to the Latin word mirus for a second. Later in Roman times, it gave way to the word miraculum, "object of wonder", since objects of wonder are "astonishing". This went into French as miracle, which passed into English with no alterations, as many French words did. This miraculous connection really proves that etymology is amazing!
2 Comments
Jon
7/15/2019 03:07:54 am

I smile at this moment - this enlightenmoment..

An inside joke of my families home has emerged around the phrase "smear it down!" (as opposed to "wipe it up."

I was configuring a marqui and kept wanting to incorporate the use of "Smearicale."

Curiosity lead me down the rabbit hole, and hear am I, in admiration.

Much thanks! )

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Susan LaPorta
8/20/2019 04:19:21 pm

I truly appreciate your deepening the meaning of the word "Miracle" for me. What you so caringly put together / created
provided such a beautiful opportunity to reflect upon all the miracles that truly are around us.

Thank you kindly,
Susan

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