milagroso

Forms

milagroso (feminine milagrosa, masculine plural milagrosos, feminine plural milagrosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish milagro + -oso.^[1][2][3] García de Diego instead derives it directly from Latin miraculosus.^[4] The noun goes back to Old Spanish miraglo, and through it to Latin mīrāculum (“a wonder, marvel”), which came into Spanish by a semi-learned route.^[5][3] The Latin noun is a derivative of mīror (“to wonder at”).^[3] Corominas records an older form mirado around 1140, the form with ⟨gl⟩ around 1300, and the modern form only from 1495.^[3]

The corresponding adjectives are Italian miracoloso, French miraculeux and Catalan miraculós.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the adjective to 1220–1250, and the DEMel records it first in Gonzalo de Berceo's Vida de San Millán, of about 1235.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades distinguished what is done by a miracle from what works miracles, the latter said chiefly of Christ, the Virgin and the saints, with a quotation on la milagrosa imagen de nuestra Señora del Sagrário.^[8] Nebrija gave Latin mirabilis and mirificus as its equivalents, and Covarrubias defined it simply as what belongs to a miracle.^[9][10] In the Quijote it already has the weakened sense “wonderful”: un rostro milagroso “a marvellous face”.^[11] The Academy's dictionaries from 1869 on list the three senses that the DLE still gives: supernatural, miracle-working, and marvellous or astonishing.^[12][13]

In the Americas the earliest records, from Santo Domingo in 1546 and 1549, use the Latinising form miraculoso.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1235 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán, the first record.^[7][3]
• 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary records milagroso.^[15][9]
• 1546 – the form miraculosa in Santo Domingo.^[14]
• 1605 – the Quijote has este milagroso Sacramento and un rostro milagroso.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as all that belongs to a miracle.^[10]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades separates the senses “done by a miracle” and “working miracles”.^[8]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from milagro.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. miraculous: brought about by a miracle, beyond the powers of nature: Su curación fue milagrosa.^[13][17][1]
2. That works miracles, said of saints, images or springs: una imagen milagrosa de la Virgen.^[13][17]
3. marvellous, astonishing, amazing: Fue milagroso que nadie resultara herido.^[13][18]

Related words

• milagrero
• maravilloso
• Latin mīrāculum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. milagro
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. milagroso
5. ^ 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. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 352
7. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. milagroso
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 568
9. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 748
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 509
13. ^ 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. milagroso
14. ^ 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. milagroso
15. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 659
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. milagroso
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. milagroso