mire

Forms

mire m (plural miri, feminine equivalent mireasă)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2] The view most often given is that it is inherited from Latin mīles (“soldier”), held by P. Papahagi, Tiktin, Meyer-Lübke and Rosetti and given by MDA2 and Wiktionary.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Tiktin thought the word took its sense when Roman soldiers began to marry local women in the conquered provinces.^[3] Wiktionary explains it from Roman law, which let soldiers marry only after their discharge, and notes that the old sense “soldier” survives in some carols.^[1] The change of meaning is hard to explain (Graur).^[2] Skok and the REW took it as modelled on Bulgarian, where the word for “soldier” also meant “husband”; compare voină (“husband”), from Old Church Slavonic воинъ (voinŭ, “warrior”).^[2][5][1]

DEX, the DLR and the DLRLV compare instead Albanian mirë (“good”), and Scriban and Șăineanu derived the word from it, Șăineanu as a pet name for the betrothed young man.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Ciorănescu calls the origin doubtful and suggests a derivative of Modern Greek μύρον (míron, “ointment, chrism”): the groom is crowned in the Orthodox wedding, and the gesture of anointing is traced on his forehead, so “anointed”, “crowned” and “married” could be equated.^[2] Other proposals he finds unconvincing: a Dacian word (Hasdeu, 1873), Ottoman Turkish آمر (amir, “chief”) through Aromanian amiră (“emperor”) (Pascu), a Cuman word for “prince” (Philippide), and a Latin *milex from Ancient Greek μεῖραξ (meîrax, “girl, lad”) (Diculescu).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1348, from a document collection.^[3] The first Romanian text is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where Psalm 18:5 compares the sun to a bridegroom: „ca mirele iase dentr-așternutul său” “like the bridegroom coming out of his chamber”.^[7][11][4]

Semantic evolution

The word names a man on his wedding day or about that time, and in the plural the couple being married.^[7][6] Ciorănescu stresses that it is used only during the wedding ceremonies: before the wedding the man is the logodnic “fiancé”, after it the bărbat or soț “husband”.^[2][9] In church texts mirele is an epithet of Christ, from Coresi's homilies of 1581 on, and a girl who becomes a nun is said a lua pe Hristos de mire “to take Christ as bridegroom”.^[7][4]

It replaced the older mărit, which survives only in some dialects.^[1][7] The word is missing only in Banat and Oltenia, according to the linguistic atlas.^[2] Regionally it also means the bride's escort at the wedding (al doilea mire) and a matchmaker.^[7][4] Its feminine is mireasă “bride”.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1348 – the first record, in a document.^[3]
• c. 1500–1520 – mirele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 18:5), the first Romanian text.^[11][4]
• 1581 – mirele Hristos “Christ the bridegroom” in Coresi's homilies.^[7]
• 1645 – mire in a text on the sacraments.^[7][8]
• 1688 – mirele in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 5:34).^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bridegroom: a man on his wedding day or just before it.^[6][4]
2. (plural) The bride and groom, the couple being married.^[6][7]
3. (religion) Christ, as the bridegroom of the Church.^[4][7]
4. (rare) A man looking for a wife, a suitor.^[4][7]

Word family

• mirel
• mireasă

Related words

• Latin mīles

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. mire
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mire
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 22
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5568
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 659
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mire
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 187
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 813
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 401
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 18:5
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 5:34