mirror

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈmɪr.ə/, US /ˈmɪr.ɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English mirour, borrowed from Old French mireor, mirour (“a reflecting glass; a model, example”),^[2][3] from mirer “to look at”,^[2][3] from Vulgar Latin *mirāre, a variant of Latin mīrārī “to wonder at”,^[2][3][4] the source of miracle and admire.^[3][2] The spelling in -or dates from the 16th century, modelled on words in -or.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A polished surface that reflects images, especially of the face: about 1225 in the OED, the mid-13th century in Etymonline.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Something that gives a true picture of something else is from about 1385,^[5] and a person or thing to be imitated, a model, was an early sense too.^[6][7] A glass or crystal used in magic is from the 13th century.^[5][6] Water was called a mirror in poetry from 1595.^[5] The verb, to reflect, is from 1820 in the OED and Barnhart, in Keats's Lamia,^[5][3] or the 1590s in Etymonline and MWU;^[2][8] Middle English had mirouren, to be a model of conduct (early 15th century), and miren, to look in a mirror.^[2][3] Many languages call a mirror by a word from Latin speculum, as German Spiegel, while English is peculiar in calling it a glass.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – a looking glass.^[5]
• c. 1385 – a true reflection of something.^[5]
• 1595 – water as a mirror.^[5]
• 1762 – in optics.^[5]
• 1820 – verb, to reflect.^[5][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A piece of glass with a shiny back that reflects images.
2. Something that shows what something else is like.

Verb

1. To show a reflection of something.
2. To be similar to something or copy it.

Word family

• mirrored
• mirrorlike
• unmirrored
• mirror image

Related words

• miracle
• admire
• mirage
• marvel

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 h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster