mío

Forms

mío m sg (first person singular possessive of singular masculine, masculine plural míos, feminine mía, feminine plural mías)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin meus (“my, mine”); the Old Spanish form was mio.^[2][3][1] Gómez de Silva traces it through a form *mieo from the Latin accusative.^[4] Old Spanish texts also write myo and meo, and in the feminine mia and ma.^[5][1] Before a noun the word was reduced to the unstressed mi in Spanish, as mon and mon are in Catalan and French.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese meu, Catalan meu, French mien, Italian mio and Romanian meu.^[6] In Asturian mio is used after the noun for both genders, with feminine nouns too.^[8]

The Latin word is formed on the stem of ego (“I”) with an adjective ending; the OLD compares a Hittite possessive.^[9] Wiktionary gives Old Latin meos and *meos, and Gómez de Silva *me-yo- (“my”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 933.^[2] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the form mio stands before the hero's title, mio Cid.^[10][11] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has it before nouns too: „Uenga mio maiordoma, qui mios aueres toma” “let my steward come, who looks after my goods”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish mio could stand before the noun with or without the article (mio entendimiento in Alfonso X's prose); the reduced form mi took over this position, and mío kept the position after the noun and the use as a pronoun.^[12][7] Covarrubias in 1611 describes this alternation (mi casa but casa mía) and records the proverb lo mío, mío, y lo tuyo de entrambos, which mocks greedy people.^[7] The Diccionario de Autoridades adds es muy mío “he is a close friend of mine” and soy mío “I am my own master”, after Latin meus sum.^[13] It and the Academy's dictionary of 1817 also record mío as the call for a cat.^[13][14]

After certain nouns it expresses affection (hijo mío, ¡madre mía!).^[15][16] Los míos are the speaker's family or group, lo mío what suits the speaker, and de mío “by myself, on my own resources”.^[16][17][3] In Cuba mío or mía is a person one feels close to.^[18]

Timeline

• 933 – first record.^[2]
• c. 1140 – mio Cid in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[10]
• c. 1180 – mio maiordoma and mios aueres in the Auto de los Reyes Magos.^[10]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios write mio entendimiento “my understanding”.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin meus, mea, meum.^[19]
• 1525 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City: dos esclavos míos.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb lo mío, mío, y lo tuyo de entrambos.^[7]
• 1817 – the Academy lists mío as the call for a cat and the phrases es muy mío and soy mío.^[14]

Meanings

Determiner

1. my, of mine, after the noun or as a predicate: un primo mío;^[15] Ese abrigo es mío.^[3][1]
2. After certain nouns, expressing affection: ¡Ven aquí, hijo mío!^[15]

Pronoun

1. With the article: mine: Tu coche es rojo y el mío es azul.^[3][1]
2. lo mío: what belongs to or suits the speaker.^[16]
3. los míos: the speaker's family, friends or group.^[16][17]

Related words

• tuyo
• suyo
• nuestro
• vuestro
• mi
• yo
• Latin meus
• Portuguese meu

Usage notes

Before a noun the short form mi (plural mis) is used: mi casa but una casa mía.^[7][16] The forms are mío, mía, míos, mías.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mío
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. mío
4. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 465
5. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mío
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5556
7. ^ a b c d e Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1138
8. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. mio
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. mio
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 352
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. mi
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 576
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. mío
16. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mío
17. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. mío
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mío
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. mío