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Etymology and origin of the Italian word mina

mina1 ancient Greek weight

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1300s Bible translation
Borrowed from
Latin mina
Ultimate origin
Akkadian manû
Etymology tree of mina1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mīna
Italian mina
From the same root · mina1
Latin minera ← mīna

Pronunciation

Forms

mina f[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the weight is borrowed from Latin mĭna, a learned word and an early Latin loan from Ancient Greek μνᾶ (mnâ), which is recorded from the 6th century BC.[4][5][2][6] The Greek word is of Semitic origin; following E. Masson, DELI starts from Akkadian manû.[4][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a 14th-century Italian translation of the Bible, for a Greek unit of weight that differed from one system to another.[4]

Semantic evolution

The mina was a sixtieth of a talent and was worth a hundred drachmas, as Tommaseo explains it in a passage of John Chrysostom's homilies.[8][9] Zingarelli gives it as a fiftieth or sixtieth of a talent and 100 or 120 drachmas.[3] The same name was used for medieval measures in Provence (1396) and Genoa (1401).[4]

Timeline

  • 14th century – A Bible translation has the word.[4]
  • 1396 – A Provençal measure of the same name is recorded.[4]
  • 1401 – A Genoese measure of the same name is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (historical) A unit of weight of the ancient peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, about half a kilogram, a sixtieth of a talent.[2][7][9]
  2. (numismatics) An ancient Greek money of account worth a hundred drachmas.[2][10][11]

mina2 mine

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1516 Ariosto, Orlando furioso
Borrowed from
French mine
Ultimate origin
Gaulish *meina
Etymology tree of mina2
inherited borrowed derived
French mine
Italian mina
Spanish mina

Pronunciation

Forms

mina f (plural mine)[1]

Etymology

The word for the mine is borrowed from French mine, recorded in French from 1314.[4][5][2] The French word continues Gaulish *meina (“raw metal, ore”) through Vulgar Latin *mīna.[4][5][12] Nocentini compares Irish méin and Welsh mwyn (“metal, ore”), and Wiktionary gives Proto-Celtic *meinis (“ore, metal”).[5][1] Meyer-Lübke explains the double vowel of Occitan mina beside Occitan mena within Gaulish, since mining was important in Roman Gaul.[12]

The senses come from French: from “ore” the French word came to mean the mine, then the explosive charge used to dig galleries, and through “mine de plomb” “lead ore” (1636) the graphite of pencils (1680).[5][4] Diez had derived the family from Late Latin mināre (“to drive”), which the vowel of French “mine” rules out.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Ariosto's Orlando furioso (1516), for an explosive charge set in a hole in a rock;[4][9] Ariosto also has the word for a mine, as in ne le mine ibere (“in the Iberian mines”).[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb minare is older than the noun in Italian: G. Villani uses it before 1348 for driving mines into rock or walls, and it meant laying mines in the ground or the sea by 1562; its figurative sense “to undermine” was rejected by the purists.[4] In siege warfare mina was the tunnel dug under enemy fortifications (1529, Sanudo).[4][2] Panzini records both the military device and the pencil lead in 1927, and DEI dates mina vagante, a drifting sea mine and figuratively a hidden danger, to 1939.[4][14][7] The miner, minatore, was first the man who laid the charges in a mine.[4][5]

Timeline

  • 1516 – Ariosto uses the word for an explosive charge.[4]
  • 1529 – M. Sanudo uses it for a tunnel under fortifications.[4]
  • 1598 – Minatore is recorded in Florio's dictionary.[4]
  • 1927 – Panzini records the military device and the pencil lead.[4]
  • 1939 – Mina vagante is recorded.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hole made in rock or masonry to hold an explosive charge; the charge itself: Gli operai hanno fatto esplodere tre mine nella cava.[2][7][9]
  2. (military) A mine: an explosive device set off by contact, by command or at a distance: mina antiuomo, mina anticarro;[2][7][3] mina vagante, a drifting sea mine, figuratively a latent danger.[2][7][3]
  3. The thin stick of graphite in a pencil or propelling pencil.[2][3][10]
  4. (zoology, botany) A gallery dug by insect larvae inside a leaf.[2][7][9]
  5. (archaic) A mine for ore, a mine gallery; a tunnel dug towards enemy fortifications.[2][3][10]
  6. (figurative, uncommon) Something that may suddenly upset a state of affairs.[7]

Word family

  • minare
  • minatore
  • sminare
  • sminamento
  • contromina
  • minerale
  • miniera

Usage notes

GRADIT lists further minor words spelled mina: a measure of capacity once used in Liguria, from Latin hemina (before 1347, DEI has it in Lazio in 1299), and others for a woman of loose morals, for threats and for the look of a face.[2][14] Zingarelli derives the obsolete mina “threat” from Latin minae and the obsolete mina “appearance” from French.[3] The GDLI quotes the latter in buona mina and cattiva mina.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
  10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  14. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2463
  15. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 422

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Mina.” Etymologically, 10 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/it/mina. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.

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