Etymologically
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mix

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mɪks/[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from mixte (“mingled, blended”) or mixed,[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman mixte,[2][3] from Latin mixtus, past participle of miscēre (“to mix, mingle, blend”),[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *meiḱ- (“to mix”),[2][3] the root also of Greek mísgein, Old Irish mescaim “I mix”, Lithuanian miẽšti and Sanskrit miśrá- “mixed”.[3][5][6] Old English miscian, borrowed from the Latin verb, did not survive into Middle English.[2][3] It is related to mixture, miscellaneous, meddle and promiscuous.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put together two or more substances: about 1480 in the OED.[7] Barnhart dates the verb to 1538, in Elyot's Dictionary,[3] and Etymonline to the 1530s;[2] Hoad says the infinitive is not found before the second quarter of the 16th century,[5] and myxte is from probably before 1425.[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was rare before Elizabethan times, perhaps because it could be confused with Middle English mixen “dung-hill” and mix “filth”, from a root meaning “to urinate”.[2][7] “To form by blending ingredients” is from the 1570s,[2] combining immaterial things from 1597,[7] and the intransitive “to become blended” from the 1630s;[2] “to associate with others” is from the 1660s[2] or the 17th century in Hoad.[5] In cinema and broadcasting, to combine two pictures or sounds, it is from 1922.[2][7] The noun, the act or result of mixing, is from the 1580s,[2] a jumble from 1882, and ready-mixed ingredients for cooking from 1938.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1480 – to mix substances.[7]
  • 1530s – verb, common use begins.[2][3]
  • 1570s – to form by blending.[2]
  • 1580s – noun, a mixture.[2]
  • 1660s – to associate with others.[2]
  • 1922 – in film and broadcasting.[2][7]
  • 1938 – a ready mix.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To combine or blend into one mass.
  2. To make by combining ingredients: to mix a drink.
  3. To bring together; to combine: to mix business and pleasure.
  4. To associate socially; to get along with others.
  5. To crossbreed.
  6. To combine sounds or tracks into a single recording.

Noun

  1. A mixture or combination.
  2. A packaged mixture of ingredients: a cake mix.
  3. A version of a recording produced by mixing.

Word family

  • mixable
  • mixability
  • commix
  • mixed
  • overmix
  • mixer
  • mixture
  • remix
  • miscellaneous
  • meddle
  • medley
  • promiscuous
  • mixen

Usage notes

A separate Old English mix, “dung, filth”, from about 888, survives in the dialect word mixen, a dung-hill;[7][2] in the West Midlands to mix was to clean out a stable.[8]

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 i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)