mirare

Forms

mirare (first-person singular present mìro, first-person singular past historic mirài, past participle miràto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mīror (“to wonder at, marvel at”), in its active form mīrāre, an archaic and Late Latin variant of the classical deponent.^[2][3][4][5] The classical verb meant “to be amazed, to marvel at”, and the sense “to look at” belongs to Late and spoken Latin.^[6][7][8][9] The verb is formed from the adjective mīrus (“remarkable, astonishing”).^[2][3][5]

The verb is panromance: French mirer, Occitan mirar, Catalan mirar, Spanish mirar, Portuguese mirar, Sardinian mirare and Romanian mira “to be astonished”, which kept the old sense.^[6][10] The Italian sense “to aim” passed into French, where the French verb took it on.^[10]

De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *smeiro- and Proto-Indo-European *sméi-ro- (“laughter”).^[11] The neuter plural of the derived mīrābilis (“wonderful”) gave mīrābilia, which spread through church use;^[2][6] Italian mira is a back-formation from the verb, and mirino a diminutive of that.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the reflexive mirarsi “to look at oneself closely” in Stefano Protonotaro, about 1250.^[2] The transitive “to watch attentively” follows before 1300 in Guido Cavalcanti and Dante.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the poets of the 13th and 14th centuries mirare is the verb of intent, admiring gaze: Dante says of his lady that she seems so pleasing “to whoever looks at her” (a chi la mira) that she sends sweetness through the eyes to the heart.^[3] It also meant “to consider with the mind”, as in Dante's mirate la dottrina che s'asconde (“mark the teaching that is hidden”).^[3][7] The old Latin sense “to marvel at” survived for a time and is now archaic.^[12][4]

The figurative “to tend towards, aim at” appears before 1342 in Cavalca, and the military sense “to point a weapon at a target” is recorded in 1723 by Salvini.^[2] The noun mira had meanwhile gained the sense “sight of a firearm” (1561), and the phrase avere di mira “to have as one's aim” is recorded in Fogazzaro in 1895.^[2] In modern Italian the sense “to look at” is literary, while “to aim” and the figurative “to aim at, strive for” are the everyday senses.^[8][3]

The imperative mira! “look!” is still used as an interjection around Arezzo and Siena, where it matches Florentine guarda!.^[7][13]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Stefano Protonotaro uses the reflexive mirarsi.^[2]
• Before 1300 – Guido Cavalcanti and Dante use mirare “to look attentively at”.^[2][3]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses it figuratively for “to aim at, tend towards”.^[2]
• 1344 – Boccaccio uses the derived mira for the target one aims at.^[2]
• 1561 – Mira is recorded for the sight of a firearm.^[2]
• 1723 – Salvini uses mirare for pointing a weapon at a target.^[2]
• 1889 – Mirino, the front sight of a gun, is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary, transitive) To gaze at, look at intently and with admiration or interest; to contemplate: mirava le colline al tramonto.^[3][7][8]
2. (literary, figurative) To consider carefully, turn one's mind to.^[3][7][14]
3. (archaic) To admire, wonder at.^[12][4][14]
4. (intransitive) To aim, take aim: point a weapon so as to hit a target, often with a: mirò al bersaglio più lontano.^[3][7][8]
5. (intransitive, figurative) To aim at, strive for a goal, with a: mira a diventare direttore.^[3][4][14]

Word family

• ammirare
• mira
• miratore
• rimirare
• mirabile
• mirabilia
• mirino

Related words

• miracolo
• meraviglia
• Latin mīror
• French mirer

Usage notes

The reflexive mirarsi is used of looking at oneself, especially in a mirror.^[8][2] The expressions mirare in alto and mirare lontano mean to set oneself ambitious aims.^[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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2471
14. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli