mile

Pronunciation

• IPA: /maɪl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mile,^[2][3] inherited from Old English mīl,^[4][2][5] from Proto-West Germanic *milja,^[4][5] also the source of Middle Dutch mīle, Dutch mijl, Old High German mīla and German Meile,^[4][5] borrowed from Latin mīlia (“thousands”), the plural of mīlle “a thousand”, as in mīlia passuum “thousands of paces”;^[2][4][3] the Germanic peoples took the neuter plural for a feminine singular.^[4] Latin mille is of unknown origin.^[4][2] The Latin word also gave French mille, Italian miglio and Spanish milla, while the Scandinavian words are from English.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English mīl is from before 800 in Barnhart,^[2] and the OED's first quotation, for the Roman measure of a thousand paces, from 971.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Roman mile was 1,000 double paces, about 4,860 feet, but local variants grew up across Europe;^[4] the medieval English mile was 6,610 feet and the old London mile 5,000 feet.^[4] In England the ordinary mile was fixed by statute at 320 perches, 5,280 feet, in Elizabeth's reign.^[4] In Middle English it was also a unit of time, about twenty minutes, the time it took to walk a mile, from about 1330.^[4][6] It has meant “a great distance” since the 1580s,^[4] 1588 in the OED.^[6] The geographical or nautical mile, a minute of latitude, is from 1632,^[6] and a race of a mile from 1901.^[6] Go the extra mile, from the early 20th century, echoes the Sermon on the Mount: “whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain”.^[7]

Timeline

• a. 800 – Old English mīl.^[2]
• 971 – the Roman mile.^[6]
• c. 1330 – a unit of time.^[6]
• 1588 – a great distance.^[6]
• 1632 – the nautical mile.^[6]
• 1901 – a mile race.^[6]
• early 20th century – go the extra mile.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A unit of length equal to 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards, about 1,609 metres.
2. A nautical mile.
3. A race one mile long.
4. (informal) A great distance or amount: miles from anywhere.

Word family

• half-mile
• milelong
• milestone
• ton-mile
• air mile
• country mile
• geographic mile
• land mile

Related words

• mileage
• million
• millennium
• millipede

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press