mingle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English menglen,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English mengen + -len with a frequentative suffix,^[2][3][5][6] perhaps after Middle Dutch mengelen or Middle High German mengeln.^[5][7][8][4] The base, also myngen, survived as the now obsolete verb ming "to mix",^[5][9][10] and it is from Old English mengan (“to mix, mingle, combine”),^[11][12][9] from Proto-Germanic *mangijaną,^[9][13] and is related to among.^{[9][4][8][14]} Its cognates include Old Saxon mengian, Old Norse menga, Old Frisian mendza, menghen, Dutch mengen and German mengen.^[9][15][4] Etymonline derives it from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, fashion, fit”),^[4][3] and Barnhart and Klein compare Ancient Greek μάσσω (mássō, “to knead”) and Lithuanian minkyti (“to knead”).^[9][15][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To mix one thing with another: before 1475, in the English register of Godstow Nunnery, of half a quarter of mixed wheat and rye.^[5][2] Barnhart dates the older verb mengen to about 1150 and Old English mengan to before 800.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first use was transitive, of mixing substances or ingredients.^[5][4] From about 1485 the verb was used of bringing together or associating things and people,^[5] and the intransitive sense "to be joined or mixed" appears by 1530.^[5][4] The sense most common today, of a person moving among others and taking part in their company, is recorded from Shakespeare's Macbeth (before 1616),^[5][4] and in later use often means moving about at a social gathering.^[5] Older senses such as to confound (1548–1717) and to concoct (1587–1871) died out.^[5] The noun mingle, a mixture, is recorded from 1548 and is now rare;^[5][17] in North American estate agents' jargon from 1974 a mingle was a single person sharing a home with another who was not a partner, a pun on single.^[5]

Timeline

• before 800 – Old English mengan, to mix.^[9]
• before 1475 – menglen, to mix one thing with another.^[5][2]
• c. 1485 – to bring together or associate things or people.^[5]
• 1530 – intransitive, to unite or combine.^[5][4]
• 1548 – noun, a mixture.^[5]
• before 1616 – of a person, to mix or associate with others, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[5][4]
• 1974 – noun, North American, a person sharing a home with an unrelated person.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix or combine things, or to become mixed, often so that the parts can still be told apart: Smoke mingled with the evening fog.^[18][17][5]
2. To move among people and talk with them, especially at a party; to socialize: The host mingled with his guests.^[18][17][5]

Noun

1. (archaic) A mixture, or the act of mingling.^[17][5]

Word family

• mingler
• minglement
• unmingled
• immingle
• intermingle
• remingle
• commingle
• mingle-mangle

Related words

• among
• mongrel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
17. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins