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mine

Etymology and origin of the French word mine

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French has two main words spelled mine: the look of a face, and a mine dug for ore or explosives.[1][2][3]

mine1 appearance

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
14th century (faire mines)
Borrowed from
Breton min
Ultimate origin
Breton (min)

Pronunciation

Forms

mine f (plural mines)[4]

Etymology

The look is probably borrowed from Breton min (“beak, muzzle”), according to the TLFi, the Grand Robert and Rey, who all qualify it with “perhaps”.[3][1][5][2][6] Pierre Guiraud proposes instead Old French mine (“minium”), from Latin miniō (“to paint red”), the word having first meant the colour of the face (see minium).[5][1] Littré calls the origin uncertain: German Miene and Danish mine may themselves come from Romance, and Diez related it to Latin minō (“to drive, lead”);[7][5][3] Rey states that the German word is a gallicism.[7][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the phrase faire mines “to make faces” (14th century, in a 16th-century manuscript), and faire faulce myne is in the Farce de Maître Pathelin (1464).[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It names the natural appearance of the face and of the whole body, revealing feelings, qualities, wealth or rank (1452); older usage included the body as much as the face.[5] From 1538 it means the expression by which one shows one's feelings.[5] Hence faire bonne mine “to look cheerful” (late 15th century), then “to welcome” (Mairet, 1639), now archaic, while faire grise mine, faire triste mine (Scarron, 1649) live on, faire la mine (1573) has been replaced by faire la tête.[3][5] Faire des mines passed from expressing feelings by gestures (about 1525) to the pejorative “to simper” (1558), see minauder.[3][5]

The idea of appearance as opposed to true nature (1616) gave classical avoir la mine de “to look like”, and ne pas payer de mine “not to look much” (1835), earlier used positively (1669).[5]

Timeline

  • 14th century – Faire mines “to make faces”.[3]
  • 1452 – The appearance of face and body.[5]
  • 1464 – Faire faulce myne, Pathelin.[3]
  • Late 15th century – Faire bonne mine.[3]
  • 1558 – Faire des mines “to simper”, Des Périers.[3]
  • 1649 – Faire triste mine, Scarron.[3]
  • 1835 – Ne pas payer de mine.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The look of the face as a sign of health: avoir bonne mine, to look well, or ironically to look silly.[3]
  2. Appearance, outward look: juger les gens sur la mine, ne pas payer de mine, not to look much.[2][5]
  3. Expression, look: faire grise mine, to look sullen, faire bonne mine à mauvais jeu, to put a good face on it.[5][7]
  4. Faire mine de rien: to look as if nothing were the matter.[3]
  5. Faire mine de: to pretend to, make as if to.[2][7]
  6. Des mines: simpering, affected airs.[3][5]

Word family

  • minauder
  • minois

mine2 mine

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1220, Anseïs de Carthage
Borrowed from
Gaulish *meina
Ultimate origin
Gaulish (*meina)

Pronunciation

Forms

mine f (plural mines)[4]

Etymology

The mine is perhaps borrowed from Gaulish *meina (“ore, raw metal”), through *mina;[5][1][2][8][9][10] compare Irish mein and Welsh mwyn (“ore”).[5][4] Bloch and Wartburg note that Gaulish ⟨ei⟩ became sometimes ⟨i⟩, sometimes ⟨e⟩, and Meyer-Lübke stresses that mining was important in Roman Gaul.[8][9] Pierre Guiraud proposed instead Latin minuō (“to reduce, break up”).[1]

The word passed from French into neighbouring languages: Italian mina, Spanish mina, English mine and German Mine.[5] The verb miner and minière belong to the same family.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anseïs de Carthage (about 1220) has it for an underground place where metals lie, or a cavity dug to extract them.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Old French also used it for the ore itself (1300), the modern minerai; a trace survives in the lead of a pencil (Richelet, 1680) and mine de plomb “graphite” (Monet, 1636).[3][5] Since the 17th century it has been used figuratively for a source of wealth, mine d'or (La Bruyère, 1694), or of ideas (Voltaire), and une mine de savoir (1835).[3][5]

In siege warfare it was a tunnel dug under walls to bring them down (Froissart, late 14th century), later filled with explosives (Belleau, 1578); hence éventer la mine “to thwart a secret plan” (Amyot, 1559) and faire jouer la mine (d'Aubigné, 1618).[3][11] In the 20th century it became an explosive device on land or at sea (1918), with champ de mines (1953).[11]

Timeline

  • c. 1220 – A mine for metals, Anseïs de Carthage.[3]
  • 1300 – “Ore”.[3]
  • Late 14th century – A siege mine, Froissart.[3]
  • 1559 – Éventer la mine, Amyot.[3]
  • 1578 – A charge of explosives, Belleau.[3]
  • 1680 – The lead of a pencil, Richelet.[3]
  • 1694 – Mine d'or, La Bruyère.[3]
  • 1918 – A naval mine.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A mine, a place where ore or coal is extracted: mine d'or, also a gold mine of profits.[2][3][4]
  2. A rich source: une mine de savoir.[5][3]
  3. The lead of a pencil, mine de plomb, graphite.[2][4]
  4. An explosive mine, champ de mines, minefield, dragueur de mines, minesweeper.[4][11]
  5. (old) A siege mine, éventer la mine, to uncover a plot.[3][11]
  6. (football, familiar) A powerful shot.[4]

Word family

  • miner
  • mineur
  • minier
  • minerai
  • minière
  • déminer
  • démineur
  • contre-mine
  • porte-mine

Usage notes

Two minor words are also spelled mine: an old measure of grain, an alteration of émine from Latin hēmīna (Wace, 1160–74), whence minot and minoterie;[3][8] and the Greek weight and coin of a hundred drachmas, from Latin mina (1564).[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 20, 12b
  7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 642a
  11. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse

Related etymologies

  • lande · also from Gaulish
  • pièce · also from Gaulish
  • quai · also from Gaulish
  • lieue · also from Gaulish
  • crème · also from Gaulish
Cite this entry

“Mine.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/mine. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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