mirla

Forms

mirla f (plural mirlas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin merŭla (“blackbird”).^[2][1][3] The older Spanish form was mierla, recorded from the early 15th century and now obsolete; the masculine mirlo, from the Latin variant merulus, is recorded from 1734.^[4][5][6] García de Diego lists dialect forms such as mielra in Salamanca and milro in popular Castilian.^[7]

The same Latin word is Portuguese melro, Catalan merla, French merle, Italian merla and Romanian mierlă.^[8][9]

The Latin noun goes back to *meselā, and its cognates are Welsh mwyalch (“blackbird”), Old High German amsla and Old English ōsle.^[1][10][11] De Vaan, following Schrijver, takes the Latin, Celtic and Germanic words to be loans from a non-Indo-European substrate language of Europe.^[10] Wiktionary connects them with Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“black, blackbird”), which is itself thought to be such a substrate word.^[1] Covarrubias, following Isidore and Festus, derived the Latin noun from merus (“pure; alone”), because the bird goes about alone.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the older form mierla to the early 15th century.^[4] The CDH's earliest hits for mirla are a place name in Alfonso X's Estoria de España and a lady's name, Doña Mirla, in the Cronicón de Cardeña.^[13] The bird is first in Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella's Vocabulario eclesiástico (1499), which describes it as a black bird, except in Achaea, where it is white.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Garcilaso de la Vega lists zorzales, tordos, mirlas among the birds startled out of a valley.^[13] Covarrubias (1611) calls it a well-known little bird of the kind kept in cages.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades treats mirla as the same as merla.^[14] Terreros describes it as a bird like the starling, the size of a thrush, with a pleasant song, and also records mirla pedrosa for a brightly coloured bird and mirla as a fish name.^[15] Domínguez (1846) defines it as the female of the mirlo.^[16]

In the cant of the underworld (germanía) mirla meant “ear”; the Academy recorded this sense from 1843 to 1899.^[17][18] In Colombia the word has been used since the 18th century (al canto de la mirla, 1775).^[19] There mirla blanca is the tropical mockingbird and mirla negra the great thrush.^[20][1]

Timeline

• early 15th century – the older form mierla is first recorded.^[4]
• 1499 – Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella's Vocabulario eclesiástico has mirla.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the bird and an etymology from Latin merus.^[12]
• 1734 – the masculine mirlo is first recorded.^[4]
• 1775 – first record in the Americas, in New Granada.^[19]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary records the cant sense “ear”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The blackbird (mirlo), Turdus merula, a songbird whose male is black with a yellow bill.^[2][6][3]
2. (Colombia) The great thrush, Turdus fuscater (mirla negra); mirla blanca is the tropical mockingbird, Mimus gilvus.^[1][20]

Related words

• mirlo
• mierla
• Latin merula
• French merle
• Portuguese melro

Usage notes

The DLE defines mirla simply as mirlo, the usual word for the bird;^[2][16] Domínguez (1846) took mirla for the female.^[2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. mirla
3. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mirla
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mirlo
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. mierla
6. ^ 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, p. s.v. mirlo
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. merula
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5534
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 459
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1138
13. ^ 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. mirla
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. mirla
15. ^ 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. 2, 592
16. ^ a b c Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1203
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 478
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 663
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. mirla
20. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. mirla