mirar

Forms

mirar (first-person singular present miro, first-person singular preterite miré, past participle mirado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish mirar, inherited from Latin mīror (“to wonder at, admire”).^[2][3][1] The Portuguese and Spanish verbs continue the active form mirāre, which replaced the deponent.^[4][5] The same Latin verb is Portuguese mirar, Catalan mirar, French mirer and Ladino mirar.^[5][1] Everywhere but in Romanian, where it still means “to be astonished”, it passed into Romance with the sense “to look at attentively”.^[6]

The Latin verb is derived from mīrus (“remarkable, astonishing”), from *smeiros.^[7][1] Wiktionary and de Vaan relate it to *smey- (“to laugh, smile”), with स्मयते (smáyate, “smiles”) and smile; de Vaan notes that the link in meaning has been doubted, and follows Vine in starting from a collective noun *sméi-ro- (“laughter”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the verb still has the Latin sense “to admire, gaze in wonder”: from the top of the citadel the Cid's wife and daughters miran Valencia, cómmo yaze la cibdad “gaze in wonder at Valencia, how the city lies”, while the ordinary verb for looking is catar.^[8][9][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish mirar first meant what it had meant in Latin, “to admire, be astonished”; about 1250 it came to mean “to contemplate”, and only in the 15th century “to look” in general, as catar fell out of use.^[2][9] The Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215) has young men come la mirar “to gaze at her” for her beauty, and in the 1256 Picatrix a figure of Mars is catando & mirando en su cara “looking and gazing at her face”.^[8][10]

Covarrubias in 1611 still felt the link with wonder: we look at a new thing and, not knowing what it is, admire it; he also noted that mirar is often used for “to heed, consider”, as in malmirado “thoughtless” and miramiento “regard”.^[11] Autoridades repeated his etymology and added the senses “to respect someone” and “to aim at an end”.^[12] The Academy recorded in 1817 the sense “to face”, said of a building, and the imperative ¡mira! used as an interjection to warn or threaten.^[13] In the Quixote mira lo que hazes already means “be careful what you do”.^[14]

American Spanish has many phrases of its own, such as mirar chueco “to look at with distrust” in Panama and Bolivia.^[15] Judeo-Spanish keeps mirar as the ordinary verb for “to look”.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – miran Valencia “they gaze in wonder at Valencia” in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[8][9]
• c. 1215 – la viniessen mirar “to come and gaze at her” in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[8][17]
• c. 1250 – the sense “to contemplate”.^[2]
• 1256 – catando & mirando in the Picatrix of Alfonso X's court.^[10]
• c. 1280 – first record of remirar.^[2]
• 1400s – the general sense “to look”.^[2]
• 1495 – first record of mirada “look, glance”.^[2]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1591 – first record of mira “sight (of a gun)”.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives mirar from Latin miror “to wonder at”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy records mirar “to face” and the interjection ¡mira!.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also intransitive and reflexive) To look at: to direct one's eyes at something: Mira el cielo antes de salir.^[3][1]
2. (transitive) To watch or observe someone's actions.^[3][1]
3. (transitive) To check, search: En la aduana le miraron el equipaje.^[3]
4. (transitive) To bear in mind, take into account.^[3]
5. (transitive) To think over, consider: Míralo bien antes de firmar.^[3][1]
6. (transitive) To look into, look for something, find out about it.^[3][1]
7. (intransitive) Of a thing, especially a building: to face: La terraza mira al río.^[3][1]
8. (intransitive) To concern, pertain to.^[3]
9. (intransitive, with por) To look after, protect, defend someone or something.^[3]
10. (intransitive, with a) To aim at an end: Solo mira a su interés.^[3][12]
11. (reflexive, with en) To take great pride or delight in something or someone.^[3]
12. (reflexive) To think a matter over carefully before deciding.^[3]
13. (imperative) ¡Mira!: used to draw attention, to warn or to threaten.^[19][1]

Word family

• mira
• mirada
• miramiento
• mirón
• remirar
• mirilla
• mirasol
• malmirado

Related words

• mirador
• admirar
• milagro
• Latin mīrus
• Portuguese mirar

Usage notes

Set phrases include bien mirado “on reflection” and de mírame y no me toques, said of a very delicate person or a fragile thing.^[3] Others are mirar de reojo “to look askance at” and mirar por encima del hombro “to look down on”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mirar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. mirar
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2240
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4373
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. mirar
9. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. mirar
10. ^ 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. mirar
11. ^ 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. 1138
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 575
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 576
14. ^ 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. 751
15. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mirar
16. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. mirâr
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. mirar
18. ^ 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. mirar
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 512