mil

Forms

mil m or f^[1] Houaiss lists the medieval spellings mill (1328), myl (1365) and mjl (15th century).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mīlle (“thousand”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mil in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1] The same Latin word is Spanish mil, Catalan mil, French mille and Italian mille; Romanian mie continues the Latin plural mīlia.^[4][1]

Nascentes notes that the word did not become ⟨mile⟩, as the sound laws would lead one to expect, because it was used before the noun it counts (proclisis).^[5] In the Crónica Geral the word is often written with a stroke through the ⟨l⟩, which its editor thinks may stand for ⟨mile⟩ or ⟨mille⟩.^[6]

The Latin word comes from *smīɣeslī, from *smih₂ǵʰéslih₂ (“one thousand”), a compound whose first part is *sm̥- (“one”); it is related to χίλιοι (khílioi) and सहस्र (sahásra).^[1][7] De Vaan explains the form as “having one thousand”, and takes the double ⟨-ll-⟩ to be perhaps a sign of a palatal ⟨l⟩.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A document of 1258–1261 glossed in the DDGM dates itself era de mil et ducentos et noueenta et noue anos “in the era of one thousand two hundred and ninety-nine years”.^[6] Houaiss dates the word to 1265, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2] In the cantigas it counts people and things (mais de mil vozes, mil e çento donas “eleven hundred ladies”) and already stands for an endless number, as in mil vezes and mil dias.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the exact number, the word has meant “countless” since the medieval lyric (mil cuidos cuidei “I thought a thousand thoughts”), and Morais in 1789 gives the figurative sense with mil, e mil razões.^[6][8] The cantigas also have mil tanto “a thousand times as much”.^[9] Caldas Aulete records an obsolete use as an intensifier in compounds such as mil-lindo “very pretty”, and Brazilian Portuguese says estar a mil for being full of energy or excitement.^[10] The word was borrowed into Papiamentu and Kadiwéu.^[1]

Timeline

• 1258–1261 – era de mil et ducentos et noueenta et noue anos in a dated document.^[6]
• 1265 – Houaiss's first date, from Cunha's index of medieval Portuguese.^[2]
• 1328 – the spelling mill;^[2] myl in 1365.^[2]
• c. 1400 – mil in the Compostela fragment of the Flos Sanctorum.^[11]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses Mil with Latin mille.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists mil vezes “a thousand times”.^[13]
• 1789 – Morais records the figurative sense “a great number”.^[8]

Meanings

Numeral

1. One thousand, ten times a hundred; 1000.^[2][14][1]
2. (figurative) Very many, countless: já te disse mil vezes.^[2][15][1]
3. Thousandth, in a series: o lugar mil.^[2][14]

Noun

1. The number one thousand, or a figure representing it (1000, M).^[2][16]

Related words

• milhar
• milhão
• milésimo
• Latin mīlle
• Spanish mil

Usage notes

Mil e um is “a great many”, and the Brazilian a mil means “at full speed, with great energy”.^[10][17] Houaiss lists the learned prefixes mil(e/i)- and quilo- for the notion “thousand”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mil
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mil
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5573
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. mil
6. ^ a b c d e Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. mil
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 81
9. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. mil
10. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mil
11. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mil
12. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mil
13. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mil
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. mil
15. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mil
16. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6171
17. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mil