Etymologically
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mirror

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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

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