Etymologically
Log in

demiror

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 23:40. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈmiː.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈmiː.ror][1]

Forms

dēmīror (present infinitive dēmīrārī, perfect active dēmīrātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] A late active form dēmīrō is found in the Latin translation of Theodore of Mopsuestia.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + mīror (“to wonder at”).[3][1][4] That verb is derived from mīrus (“wonderful”),[5] which goes back to Proto-Italic *smeiro-.[5] The usual connection with Proto-Indo-European *smei- (“to laugh”) is doubted on semantic grounds, as de Vaan reports.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,[5][2] with an indirect question: nimis dēmīror quī illaec … sciat, “I wonder very much how this person knows those things”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is used mostly in the first person of the present and belongs to the language of conversation.[6] It meant to be utterly astonished at something, with an accusative or an accusative and infinitive: Plautus has eum dēmīror nōn venīre, “I am surprised that he is not coming”, and Cicero spērāsse mē cōnsule assequī posse dēmīror, “that you hoped to achieve it while I was consul amazes me”.[6][7][8] With an indirect question it meant to wonder how or why, as in Cicero's dēmīror cūr, “I wonder why”.[3][9]

Gellius uses it with a personal object, of admiring someone's answer or audacity, and has multa dēmīranda, “many things to be admired”.[6][9] Medieval writers used it of admiring, of being lost in wonder, and of being surprised.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it with an indirect question.[3][11]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it.[3][2][11]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in speeches and letters.[6][9][11]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of admiring.[6][9][11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be utterly astonished at, wonder greatly at.[3][6][7]
  2. To wonder (how, why, where), with an indirect question.[3][9]
  3. To admire.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de