mirare

Forms

mirare f (plural mirări)^[1] In Moldavia the word was mierare.^[2][3] A manuscript text of 1785 has „Inimă, mă ia merare” “heart, I am seized with wonder”, and Creangă writes „cuprins de mierare” “seized with wonder”.^[4]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of mira “to wonder”, formed from Romanian mira + -re.^[1][5][3][2] The verb is inherited from mīror (“to wonder at”).^[6] Ciorănescu notes that spoken Latin used the verb in the active rather than the deponent form.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 104:5, where mirarile are God's “wonders”.^[2] MDA2 dates it to the Psaltirea Scheiană of about 1573–1578, in the same sense of “wonder, miracle”.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “wonder, miracle” has gone out of use.^[3][2] The word came to mean the state of being surprised: an 18th-century text has tu mă aduci spre mirări “you astonish me”, and the sense has been the main one ever since.^[4][5] In the old language it also meant “admiration”, the sense that survives in vrednic de mirare “admirable”.^[5][3] Tiktin and MDA2 record an old sense “curiosity”, as in Creangă's mi-i de mirare de unde ai să-l iei “I wonder where you will get it from”.^[2][3]

The set phrases de mirare “surprising” and n-ar fi de mirare să… “it would not be surprising if…” are common.^[5] Semnul mirării is the exclamation mark.^[3] In some regions nu-i mirare is said in reply to thanks: “no need to thank me”.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – mirarile “his wonders” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][7]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – five times in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]
• c. 1750 – mirări “astonishment” in an 18th-century text.^[4]
• 1785 – the Moldavian form merare in a manuscript text.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. surprise, astonishment, puzzlement.^[5][3] Ne-a privit cu mirare când i-am spus vestea.^[5]
2. (obsolete) admiration;^[1] (vrednic) de mirare “admirable”.^[5][3]
3. (obsolete) A wonder, a miracle.^[3][2]
4. (rare) curiosity.^[3][2]

Related words

• mira
• minune
• Latin mīror

Usage notes

De mirare means “surprising”: e de mirare că a venit “it is surprising that he came”.^[5] A-i fi cuiva de mirare means “to be surprised”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mirare
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 22
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mirare
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 659
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. mira
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 338
8. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. mirare
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mark 16:8