Etymologically
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mild

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmaɪld/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English mild, milde, inherited from Old English milde (“gentle, merciful, gracious”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *milþjaz,[3][5] source also of Old Norse mildr, which also contributed to the English word, Old Saxon mildi, Dutch mild, German milde and Gothic mildiþa, kindness.[3][2] It goes back to PIE *meldʰ-,[3][2][5] also the source of Greek malthakós, soft,[2][5][4] and related to Latin mollis (“soft”) and to melt.[3][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of persons, especially rulers, kind, gracious, merciful: before 725.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

NODE notes that it originally meant gracious, not severe in command.[6] It was applied to God, Christ and the Virgin from 971,[7] and in Old English was also an adverb, mercifully, graciously.[3] Of weather, not rough or stormy, it is from the late 14th century,[3] and of medicine, gentle in effect, from about 1400 (the 14th century in Hoad).[3][5] Of rule or punishment, moderate, not hard to endure, it is by the 1570s,[3] and of disease from 1744.[3] The Century Dictionary noted that mild is chiefly a word of nature or character, while gentle is chiefly a word of action.[3] In Britain mild is also a draught beer, darker and less hopped than bitter.[8]

Timeline

  • before 725 – gracious, merciful.[2]
  • 971 – of God and Christ.[7]
  • late 14th century – of weather.[3]
  • c. 1400 – of medicine.[3]
  • 1570s – of punishment.[3]
  • 1744 – of disease.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Gentle or kind in nature or behaviour.
  2. Not strong or harsh in taste or effect: a mild curry.
  3. Moderate; not extreme: a mild rebuke.
  4. Of weather, warm and pleasant.
  5. Of an illness, not severe.

Noun

  1. (British) A dark draught beer with less flavour of hops than bitter.

Word family

  • mildly
  • mildness
  • overmild
  • mild steel
  • melt
  • mollify
  • mollusc

Usage notes

The OED records an English and American dialect mild, a variant of mile.[7] In Orkney a mild was a kind of fish.[9]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)