mugir

Forms

mugir^[1] Old French muir and muire, the inherited forms, are recorded from the 12th to the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mūgiō (“to low, bellow, to roar”), a remodelling after the Latin verb of Old French muir, muire, which had come down from the same Latin word.^[2][3][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg explain the second form as the first moved into another conjugation, and note that the noun mugissement was remodelled after Latin before the verb was.^[5] Rey describes the Latin verb as built on an onomatopoeia ⟨mu-⟩ imitating the bellow of a bull.^[3] Littré compares Ancient Greek μυκάομαι (mukáomai, “to bellow”).^[7]

Cognate with Old Occitan mugir, Italian muggire and Spanish mugir.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Latinized form is first found at the end of the 13th century in the Traité of Gautier de Bibbesworth, said of cattle.^[2][4] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it for large animals that low or bellow, with records from 1235–55.^[8] The older muir had the same sense: a Godefroy quotation has bues muir “oxen bellow”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Used first of cattle, the verb was extended in 1507 to any noise like a bellow, as of the wind or the sea.^[2][3] Like many verbs of speaking and of noise it is sometimes transitive, as in Favart's je mugis des vers “I bellow out verses” (1744).^[2][3] Littré also records it of a human voice forced to excess.^[7]

The noun mugissement (1210, again 1487) replaced Old French muiement, formed on muir;^[3] Middle French also had short-lived nouns such as mugiment and mugicion.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1112 – The inherited form muire appears in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[4][10]
• 1235–55 – Anglo-Norman records of the verb used of large animals.^[8]
• c. 1280 – Mugir appears in Gautier de Bibbesworth's Traité.^[2][4][10]
• 14th century – The old form muir goes out of use.^[2][3]
• 1507 – Octavien de Saint-Gelais uses it of a noise like a bellow.^[2][3]
• 1744 – Favart uses it transitively: je mugis des vers.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of cattle, to low or bellow, giving their deep, drawn-out cry: Dans le pré, les vaches mugissaient.^[11][12][13]
2. To make a sound like a bellow, said of the wind, the sea or a siren: La tempête mugit toute la nuit.^[11][13][2]
3. Of a person, to roar with a forced voice: Le patron mugissait de colère.^[7][2]

Word family

• mugissement

Related words

• meugler
• Latin mūgiō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/3, 191b
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 5, 445
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
13. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)