milagro

Forms

milagro m (plural milagros)^[1] Old Spanish had miráculo, miraclo and miraglo;^[2][3][4] miraglo is the usual medieval form.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish miraglo, inherited from Latin mīrāculum (“wonder, marvel”), a semi-learned word.^[4][5][1][6] The regular Spanish outcome of the Latin cluster /kl/ is a jota, as in ojo from oculus, so a fully popular word would have ended in ⟨-jo⟩.^[7]

The earliest forms were miráculo and miraclo, then the form with /g/; the modern word, recorded from 1495, arose by metathesis of /r/ and /l/.^[4][1][8] The same Latin word is Portuguese milagre, Galician milagre, Aragonese miraglo, Catalan miracle, French miracle and Italian miracolo.^[9][10][1] The inherited Catalan mirall means “mirror”.^[9]

The Latin word is formed from mīror (“to wonder at, marvel”) with the instrumental suffix -culum.^[11][1] In Latin it meant an amazing object or sight, a marvel; the word then passed into the language of religion, pagan and then Christian.^[11][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), in Jimena's prayer to Christ, who walked the earth mostrando los miráculos “showing the miracles”: del agua fezist vino e de la piedra pan “of water you made wine and of stone bread”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The form miraglo is found in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215) and in the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient, the first text with the word that survives in a copy of its own time.^[2] The Siete Partidas explain fazer miraglos as doing something against nature by the power of God, such as returning the soul to a dead body;^[12] Alfonso X's astrological prose uses miraclos for wonders in general.^[12]

Nebrija in 1492 used milagro to render Latin miraculum, and also monstrum, portentum and prodigium as a “miracle that signifies or threatens evil”.^[13] Covarrubias wrote in 1611 that strictly only what divine power alone can do is a miracle, but that anything extraordinary was loosely called so, as in Fulano ha hecho milagros “so-and-so has worked wonders”.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades also recorded the word as an interjection of surprise and as a name for the wax ex-voto hung in churches in thanks for a favour.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 added colgar a uno el milagro “to pin a misdeed on someone” and the proverb hágase el milagro, y hágalo el diablo “let the miracle be done, even if the devil does it”.^[16]

Spanish passed the word to Tagalog, Quechua and Aymara.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has miráculos.^[2][4]
• c. 1215 – miraglos in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – first record of milagroso.^[4]
• c. 1230–1260 – mjraglos in the Libre dels tres reys d'Orient, the first record in a text without a later copy.^[2]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas has miraclos “wonders”.^[12]
• c. 1300 – the BDELC's date for miraglo.^[4]
• 1495 – first record of the form milagro.^[4][6]
• 1546 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, still as miraglo.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias distinguishes true miracles from anything extraordinary.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “ex-voto”.^[15]
• 18th century – first record of milagrero.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. miracle: an event that natural laws cannot explain and that is attributed to divine intervention.^[5][1]
2. wonder: a rare, extraordinary or marvellous event or thing: Fue un milagro que llegara a tiempo.^[5][1][18]
3. (rare) Ex-voto, a votive offering.^[5]

Interjection

1. Expresses surprise at something: ¡Milagro!^[5][15]

Word family

• milagroso
• milagrero
• milagrear
• milagrería

Related words

• mirar
• Latin mīrāculum
• Portuguese milagre

Usage notes

De milagro means “by a miracle, narrowly”, of something that happened when it seemed impossible or did not happen when it seemed certain;^[5][18] hacer milagros is to achieve much with few means;^[5][18] colgar a alguien el milagro is used ironically for blaming someone.^[5][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. milagro
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. milagro
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. milagro
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. milagro
6. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 435
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. milagro
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. milagro
9. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4371
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. miraculum
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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. milagro
13. ^ 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. milagro
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 567
16. ^ 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. 703
17. ^ 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. milagro
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. milagro