miau

Forms

miau m (plural miaus)^[1]

Etymology

It is an onomatopoeia imitating the cat's cry.^[1][2][3] The DCECH derives maullar “to mew” from an older onomatopoeia of the same kind, mau, and the BDELC calls mayar another imitation of the cat's voice.^[4][5] García de Diego groups it with Catalan miular and the Cantabrian verb miagar “to mew”.^[6] Echegaray in 1887 still connected it with the verb for “to mew” and with French miaou.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the first part of Don Quijote (1605): a knight bears a golden cat on his shield with the motto Miau, a pun on the beginning of his lady's name.^[8] The DHLE dates the first record to Tirso de Molina's El vergonzoso en palacio (c. 1611–1621), where the variant miao is an interjection imitating the cat.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As a noun, “the cat's cry”, the word is first recorded in Bluteau's Spanish–Portuguese dictionary of 1721 and in a text in 1802, when Félix de Azara compares a bird's evening call to a cat's melancholy miau.^[2][8] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has the noun, and that of 1884 separated the onomatopoeia from the noun “mewing”.^[9][10][2] A colloquial use expressing refusal or disbelief appears in Spain in 1888, in Pérez Galdós's novel Miau, and in an Aragonese dictionary of 1938.^[2][11] The phrase no decir ni miau “not to say a word” is recorded from 1906 in a Havana newspaper, and miau as a name for the cat itself from 1897.^[2]

Timeline

• 1605 – a pun on Miau in the first part of Don Quijote.^[8]
• c. 1611–1621 – the DHLE's first record, the variant miao, in Tirso de Molina.^[2]
• 1721 – Bluteau's dictionary records the noun “the cat's cry”.^[2]
• 1787 – Terreros lists mau, miau and meau.^[12]
• 1817 – in the Academy's dictionary, as a masculine noun.^[9]
• 1888 – Pérez Galdós's novel Miau shows the use expressing disbelief.^[2]
• 1906 – no decir ni miau is first recorded, in Havana.^[2]

Meanings

Interjection

1. meow: imitates the cry of a cat (gato).^[13][11][1]
2. (colloquial) Expresses mocking refusal or disbelief.^[11][2]

Noun

1. A meow: the cry of a cat; a maullido: El gatito soltó un miau débil.^[13][1]

Related words

• maullar
• maullido
• mayar
• Catalan miular

Usage notes

The plural of the noun is miaus.^[1] No decir ni miau means “to keep completely silent”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española (2013–), Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (DHLE), https://www.rae.es/dhle, p. s.v. miau
3. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
4. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 889
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maullar
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. miau
7. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 343
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. miau
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 572
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 701
11. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 4, 217
13. ^ a b 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