mirage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mɪˈɹɑːʒ/, /mɪˈɹaʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mirage (1753),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from se mirer “to look at oneself in a mirror, to be reflected”, from mirer “to look at”,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin mīrārī (“to wonder at”), variant mīrāre,^[2][3][4][5] from mīrus “wonderful”.^[2][4] It is related to mirror and miracle.^[3][4] The resemblance to Arabic miʿrāj “ladder, ascent” appears to be coincidental.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An optical illusion common in hot countries, especially in sandy deserts, in which the image of a distant object appears displaced or inverted, often as if reflected in a sheet of water (1800 in Etymonline, in translations of French works; 1803 in the OED and Merriam-Webster).^[4][7][5]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, a deceptive appearance or illusory hope, is found by 1812.^[4][7][3] The phenomenon is caused by the bending of light rays through layers of air of different density,^[4][2][5] and the word was later used of the shimmering, wave-like look of warmed air just above the ground (1913).^[7] An earlier English word for a desert mirage was zarab (mid-15th century), from Arabic sarāb through Old French.^[4] A Mirage is also a series of French supersonic fighter aircraft.^[8]

Timeline

• 1753 – French mirage.^[4]
• 1800 – English, the optical illusion.^[4]
• 1803 – first OED quotation.^[7][5]
• 1812 – figuratively, an illusion.^[4][7][3]
• 1913 – the shimmer of warm air near the ground.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An optical phenomenon, seen especially in the desert, at sea or over hot pavement, in which refraction of light by layers of hot and cool air creates the illusion of a sheet of water, often with inverted images of distant objects.
2. Something illusory, insubstantial or unattainable.

Related words

• mirror
• miracle
• admire
• marvel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House