Etymologically
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mine

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English has two words spelled mine: the possessive pronoun, from Old English, and the excavation, from French and probably of Celtic origin.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /maɪn/[4]

mine1 belonging to me

Etymology

The pronoun is inherited from Middle English min, inherited from Old English mīn (“mine, my”),[5][2][3] from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz,[5][2][6] the source also of Old Saxon and Old High German mīn, Dutch mijn, German mein, Old Norse minn and Gothic meins,[5][7] an adjective formed from the old genitive of the first-person pronoun, the base of me.[2][5][6] my is a shortened form of it.[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English mīn: about 725, in Beowulf.[2] Middle English mine is from 1100.[2]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective before its noun, mine was replaced from the 13th century by my when the noun is expressed;[5] Hoad notes that the final n was already dropped before a consonant in the 13th century.[6] As a noun, “my people, my family”, it is Old English.[5] In this heart of mine and no fault of mine it is a double genitive.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – mīn, in Beowulf.[2]
  • 1100 – Middle English mine.[2]
  • 13th century – replaced by my before a noun.[5]

Modern meaning

Pronoun

  1. The one or ones belonging to me: the book is mine.

Determiner

  1. (archaic) My, used before a vowel or h: mine eyes.

mine2 excavation

Etymology

The excavation is inherited from Middle English myne, borrowed from Old French mine (“vein, lode; shaft; ore”),[5][2][1] also Medieval Latin mina, minera “ore”,[5] perhaps from the Old French verb miner,[2][7] probably through Vulgar Latin *mīna[3][1] from a Celtic source,[5][1][8] Proto-Celtic *meini-:[2][5] compare Welsh mwyn (“ore”) and Irish méin “ore, mine”.[2][3][7] Etymonline notes that Italy and Greece were poor in minerals, while there was early extensive mining in Celtic lands such as Cornwall.[5] The verb is Middle English minen, from Old French miner.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pit or tunnel dug to extract metals and minerals: 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.[9][2] The verb is probably before 1300.[2]

Semantic evolution

A tunnel under fortifications to bring them down is from about 1400[5] or 1483,[9] and the verb in this sense from about 1300.[5] An abundant source of something, as in a mine of information, is from 1541.[9] Mine was also used for ore itself from about 1400, now only for iron ore.[9] The verb meant “to dig in the earth” from the mid-14th century, and figuratively “to ruin by slow or secret means” from the same time.[5] From the old tactic of tunnelling under fortifications to blow them up, mine came to mean an explosive charge, and the verb “to lay explosive mines” is from the 1620s.[5] Miner is from about 1303, and earlier for one who undermined fortifications.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – verb, to dig a mine.[2]
  • 1303 – an excavation for minerals.[9][2]
  • c. 1400 – a tunnel under fortifications; ore.[5][9]
  • 1541 – an abundant source.[9]
  • 1620s – to lay explosive mines.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An excavation in the earth from which coal, ore or minerals are dug.
  2. An abundant source: a mine of information.
  3. An explosive device placed underground or in water.
  4. (historical) A tunnel dug under enemy fortifications.

Verb

  1. To dig a mine, or extract minerals from one.
  2. To lay explosive mines in or under.
  3. To search a source for something useful: to mine data.

Word family

  • miner
  • mining
  • minefield
  • landmine
  • undermine
  • mineral
  • me
  • my

References

  1. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press