mies

Forms

mies f (plural mieses)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write miesse, miese and messe.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish mies, inherited from Latin messis (“reaping, harvest”), from the accusative form.^[1][4][5] The Latin noun is formed from metō (“to reap”).^[5][4][6][7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese messe, Catalan messes, Italian messe and Old French mes.^[8][9][10] Coromines notes that the Catalan word is always plural, which is why it kept its final vowel.^[11]

The Latin verb goes back to a Proto-Italic verb “to reap”, with a close cognate in Welsh medi (“to mow, harvest”); de Vaan notes that the further etymology of the root is disputed.^[12] From the same verb Spanish has mesar “to tear out (hair)”, from a Vulgar Latin frequentative *messare (“to reap”).^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records in the CDH are the Fazienda de Ultramar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where a king's people will segarle ... sus myesses “reap his crops”, and the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), with a chapter Delas miesses como deuen seer guardadas “On how the crops must be guarded”.^[14] The sense is the grain crop, standing or reaped: the Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235) speaks of bringing la mies al era “the crop to the threshing floor”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X used the word for the ripe grain crop, for the time of the harvest and, in the plural, for the sown fields.^[15] Nebrija (c. 1495) renders miesse by Latin messis and seges.^[16] Covarrubias (1611) took its proper sense to be the season of reaping and the reaping itself.^[17]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the ear, stalk and grain of wheat, barley and other bread grains, and added the figurative sense from the Gospel image of the great harvest and the few labourers: the multitude of people converted to the faith or ready to be.^[18] The image is common in the letters of the missionaries in the Americas: la mies es mucha y los obreros somos pocos (Mexico, 1544).^[19] Autoridades also records the phrase meter la hoz en mies ajena “to put one's sickle in another's crop”, said of someone who meddles in business that is not his.^[18] The Academy's 1884 edition added a sense of the northern mountain provinces, the enclosed valleys where the villagers have their sown fields; the DLE now labels it Cantabrian.^[20][5]

Timeline

• 1055 – DEMel's earliest primary record, messe, in a document of San Vicente de Oviedo.^[2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultramar has myesses (in a 13th-century copy).^[14]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has miesses.^[14][4]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses the plural for the sown fields.^[15]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses tiempo de las miesses for harvest time.^[15]
• 1544 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico, in the Gospel image of the harvest.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the season of reaping.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the figurative sense and meter la hoz en mies ajena.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the northern sense “enclosed valley of sown fields”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ripe cereal crop, the grain from whose seed bread is made: El viento movía la mies dorada.^[5][1][21]
2. The time of the reaping (siega) and harvest (cosecha) of grain.^[5][1]
3. (figurative, Christianity) The multitude of people converted to the Christian faith or ready for conversion.^[5][21]
4. (Cantabria, usually in the plural) The sown fields of a valley taken together.^[5][21]
5. (in the plural) Sown fields: Las mieses de este año prometen.^[5]

Related words

• mesar
• meseguero
• Latin messis
• Portuguese messe
• Catalan messes

Usage notes

The phrase meter la hoz en mies ajena “to put one's sickle in another's crop” means to meddle in what is not one's business.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. messis
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mies
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. mies
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 463
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2209
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. messes
11. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 630
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. mies
14. ^ 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. mies
15. ^ a b c 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. mies
16. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. mies
17. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1136
18. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 566
19. ^ a b 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. mies
20. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 702
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mies