miracle French · revision 16862

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis|origins=la mirus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /mi.ʁakl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''miracle''' ''m'' (plural miracles)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|mīrāculum|t=wonder, marvel]], taken in the religious sense the word had acquired in Church Latin.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) The Latin noun is derived, through [[m|la|mīror|t=to wonder at]] (see [[admirer]], [[mirer]]), from [[m|la|mīrus|t=astonishing, wonderful]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) The inherited Old French [[m|fro|mirail|t=mirror]] goes back to the same family.^(Wiktionary) In the Middle Ages it was sometimes feminine.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Cognate with [[pro|miracle]], [[es|milagro]], [[pt|milagre]] and [[it|miracolo]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Vie de saint Alexis'' (mid-11th century) uses it for an event not explained by natural causes and attributed to divine intervention.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ At first it was very close to [[merveille]], which also expressed astonishment.^(DHLF 1992) By metonymy it named, from Rutebeuf's ''Miracle de Théophile'' (about 1258), a popular religious play staging the miracles of the Virgin or the saints, a major genre of medieval theatre.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ By extension it took the lay sense “astonishing thing” (Jean de Meun, about 1269–1278), with ''c'est un miracle'' (1579), ''crier au miracle'' (1659, Corneille) and ''tenir du miracle'' (1688, Bossuet).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) It also meant “a thing worthy of admiration”, as in ''les sept miracles du monde'' (1567); from the 17th century this and the hyperbolic “unexpected success” were felt as metaphors of the religious sense.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Furetière (1690) notes the hyperbole ''c'est un miracle de vous voir''.^(TLFi)^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1050 – A divine miracle, in the ''Vie de saint Alexis''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1258 – A miracle play, Rutebeuf's ''Miracle de Théophile''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1269–1278 – “Astonishing thing”, in Jean de Meun.^(TLFi)

+ * 1314 – The adjective [[miraculeux]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1567 – ''Les sept miracles du monde''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1659 – ''Crier au miracle'', in Corneille.^(TLFi)

+ * 1690 – ''C'est un miracle de vous voir'', in Furetière.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(religion)'' A [[m|en|miracle]], an extraordinary event attributed to divine intervention: ''les miracles de Lourdes''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # An astonishing, unexpected event or success, ''par miracle'', miraculously.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+ # A thing worthy of admiration, a [[m|en|marvel]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(literature)'' A medieval miracle play.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''Crier au miracle'': to hail something as wonderful, ''tenir du miracle'', to be little short of miraculous.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[miraculeux]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[merveille]]

+ * [[mirer]]

+ * [[admirer]]

+ * [[la|mīrāculum]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}