mit

Forms

mit n (plural mituri)^[1] The old plural was masculine, miți: „se vor paradosi mitii lui Esop” “Aesop's fables will be taught to him” (early 19th century).^[2][3] A neuter plural mite occurs in Eminescu, beside the usual mituri.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek μύθος (míthos) and French mythe: DEX, MDA2 and Tiktin give both sources, the Romanian Wiktionary only the Greek one.^[6][5][3][7] Wiktionary names Ancient Greek μῦθος (mûthos) or the French word, and the neologism dictionaries add Latin mythus.^[1][8][9] Scriban derives it from the ancient form.^[10]

The French word is a late borrowing, of 1803, from Late Latin mythos (“fable”), itself from the Greek word.^[11] In Homer the Greek word means “word, speech”, and later “story, tale, myth”.^[12][11] Its origin is obscure: Beekes finds no convincing cognates and tentatively calls it Pre-Greek;^[12][13][1] Frisk and Babiniotis think of an onomatopoeic stem μῦ (mû), the sound of the closed lips.^[12][13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a document of about 1800, printed in the Uricariul, which says that Aesop's miți will be taught to a child: the sense is “fable”.^[3][5][2]

Semantic evolution

From “fable” the word passed to its modern sense, a sacred tale about the gods, heroes and the origin of the world: Heliade speaks of the myths of the Indians, a periodical of 1870 of myths passing from people to people, and Macedonski of “the god of an Olympian myth”.^[2] In the 19th century it could also mean mythology as a whole.^[5][2]

The figurative sense, an invented story or a thing that does not really exist, is recorded by Șăineanu and Scriban.^[14][10] The rare phrase de mit means “fantastic, fabulous”.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 1800 – mitii lui Esop “Aesop's fables” in a document of the Uricariul.^[3][2]
• 1803 – French mythe is borrowed from Late Latin.^[11]
• 1870 – mitele “myths” in a periodical.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary defines mitŭ as a tale of fabulous times.^[15]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Mythus.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A myth: a sacred, fabulous tale about the origin of the universe and of nature, or about gods and legendary heroes.^[6][5]
2. More generally, a story, a legend, a fairy tale.^[6][5]
3. (figurative) A fiction; something without a real basis.^[17][9]
4. (obsolete) A fable; mythology.^[5][2]

Related words

• mitologie
• mitic
• Modern Greek μύθος (míthos)
• French mythe

Usage notes

De mit is a set phrase meaning “fantastic, fabulous”.^[6] Cihac records a different, regional mit, miță “of a lamb; lamb's wool”, which belongs with miță.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mit
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. mit
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 95
5. ^ 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, 28
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 661
7. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. mit
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. mit
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 816
11. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 961
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 403
15. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 105
16. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 387
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mit
18. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 198