Etymologically
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mien

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mjɛ̃/[1]

Forms

mien (feminine mienne, masculine plural miens, feminine plural miennes)[1] Old French meon (842), mens (about 1050), mien; old feminine meie, moie, replaced by mienne (about 1340).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is the stressed form of the possessive, inherited from Old French mien, inherited from Latin meus (“my, mine”), from its accusative case; the unstressed form gave mon.[2][3][4][5] The feminine form was remade on the masculine and ousted the older feminine forms, from Latin mea, used from about 1100 to the 15th or 16th century.[2][3][4] Littré reports that Diez saw in the masculine an old possessive form with an added ending, while others took it for a diphthongized form of Picard men.[6]

Compare Italian mio, Spanish mío, Portuguese meu, Occitan mieu and Romanian mieu.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Strasbourg Oaths (842) have meon in cist meon fradre Karlo, “this my brother Charles”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective before a noun after an article (un mien filz, Chanson de Roland) it was already called old-fashioned by the Académie in 1694 and survives only as a playful archaism (un mien cousin).[2][3] As a predicate (je le fais mien, and sois mienne in the language of love, late 12th century) it is literary.[3][7] The usual use is as a pronoun with the article, le mien, from the Chanson de Roland on.[2][3]

As a noun le mien “my property” (about 1140) is archaic;[2][3] les miens “my family, my people” is from the 14th century, j'y mets du mien “I do my bit” from 1668, and Furetière records j'ai bien fait des miennes “I sowed my wild oats” in 1690.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 842 – Meon in the Strasbourg Oaths.[2]
  • c. 1050 – Mens, in the Vie de saint Alexis.[2]
  • c. 1100 – Pronoun use and un mien filz, in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1340 – The feminine mienne, in Guillaume de Machaut.[2]
  • 14th century – Les miens “my kin”.[2]
  • 1668 – Y mettre du mien.[3]
  • 1690 – Faire des miennes, in Furetière.[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. Le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes: mine: votre fils et le mien.[8][2]

Adjective

  1. (literary, as predicate) Mine: ses idées que j'ai faites miennes, tu es mienne.[8][9]
  2. (dated or humorous) My, of mine: un mien cousin.[8][7]

Noun

  1. Les miens: my family, my people.[2][3]
  2. Y mettre du mien: to do my share, make an effort.[3][6]
  3. (dated) Le mien: what is mine, my property.[6][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)