Etymologically
Log in

mină

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Romanian word mină

mină1 mine; explosive mine; pencil lead

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1785
Borrowed from
French mine
Ultimate origin
Breton min
Etymology tree of mină1
inherited borrowed derived
French mine
Italian mina
Spanish mina
Romanian mină

Forms

mină f (plural mine)[1]

Etymology

The word for a mine is borrowed from French mine, with German Mine as a second source, as the DEX, the MDA2, the DLR and Tiktin give it.[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu and Wiktionary give French alone, and Marcu & Maneca add Italian mina.[6][1][7]

The German word is itself from French.[8][9] The French word in the sense “ore, vein of ore” spread through Romance from Gallo-Romance and is probably Celtic, from Gaulish *mīna related to Welsh and Irish words for ore.[9][8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1785.[5] The first quotation in the DLR, from Vîrnav's translation of Condillac's Logic (1825), still explains it with the native word for a salt mine: „un trup solid ce se scoate de prin minuri (ocne)” “a solid body that is taken out of mines”.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 1830s the press still glossed it with the old words for a mine, baie and ocnă: proprietarilor de mine (băi) in 1830, o mină (ocnă) de aur in 1833.[4] The old plural minuri gave way to mine.[3] Heliade used it figuratively in the 19th century: nature is a rich mine for poetry, and the sense “inexhaustible source” has stayed.[4][2]

A military sense came from siege warfare: Costinescu (1870) gives a tunnel dug under a bastion to blow it up with gunpowder, glossed with lagum.[10][3] From this came the explosive charge that goes off on contact or on command, Scriban's floating mine among them.[11][2] The rod of graphite in a pencil is a later sense.[3][7] In Moldova mină also names an unpaved cellar.[12]

Timeline

  • 1785 – the first record.[5]
  • 1825 – minuri “mines” in Vîrnav's translation of Condillac.[3][4]
  • 1833 – o mină (ocnă) de aur “a gold mine” in the press.[4]
  • 1870 – the military mine under a bastion, in Costinescu.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A mine: an underground place with deposits of useful minerals; the galleries, shafts and installations for extracting them; ocnă, baie.[2][3]
  2. (figurative) An inexhaustible source: o mină de informații “a mine of information”.[2][11]
  3. An explosive weapon laid on or in the ground or in water, which goes off on contact or on command.[2][3]
  4. (rare) A gallery dug to blow up an enemy fortification.[3][10]
  5. The lead of a pencil, a thin rod of graphite or another material.[2][3]

mină2 facial expression, look

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1829
Borrowed from
French mine
Ultimate origin
Breton min
Etymology tree of mină2
inherited borrowed derived
French mine
Italian mina
Spanish mina
Romanian mină

Forms

mină f (plural mine)[1]

Etymology

The word for a facial expression is borrowed from French mine (“look, air”).[2][3][4][5][6] The French word is of uncertain origin: the DHLF calls it perhaps a borrowing from Breton min (“beak, muzzle”), and reports Guiraud's view that it is Old French mine (“minium”), the colour of the face;[13] German Miene is itself a gallicism.[13] Scriban too thought of Breton.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in 1829, is the phrase a face mine “to pull faces, to look displeased”: „Cei mai mulți făcea mine” “most of them made faces”.[4][5] A treatise on physiognomy of 1855 speaks of the modesty shown „în mina sa (fața sa)” “in his mien (his face)”.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu (1870) translated the French phrases with it: a avea mină bună “to look well”, a face mina de a… “to look as if one is going to…”.[14] The first survives as a avea (o) mină bună (sau rea) “to look well (or ill)”; the second is rare, and a face mine is obsolete.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1829 – a face mine “to pull faces”, the first record.[4][5]
  • 1855 – mina sa in a treatise on physiognomy.[3]
  • 1870 – the French phrases in Costinescu's dictionary.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A facial expression, look, fizionomie: o mină surâzătoare “a smiling face”.[2][4]
  2. a avea (o) mină bună (sau rea): to look well (or ill), to seem healthy (or sick).[2][3]
  3. (rare) a face mina de a…: to show an intention to…;[3] (obsolete) a face mine: to look displeased.[3]
  • mina
  • miner
  • French mine

Usage notes

A third mină, from French mine and Latin mina, names an ancient Greek coin of gold or silver worth 100 drachmas, and an ancient Greek unit of weight;[4][3][11] Scriban traces the Latin to Greek μνᾶ (mnâ).[4][3][11]

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 655
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 15
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mină
  5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mină
  6. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. mină
  7. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. mină
  8. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 624
  9. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 97
  11. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 809
  12. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 177
  13. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 98

Related etymologies

  • cap · also from French
  • dura · also from French
  • pur · also from French
  • pană · also from French
  • pat · also from French
  • masă · also from French
  • lac · also from French
  • primar · also from French
Cite this entry

“Mină.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/min%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·