Etymograph

English

Mira

Mira comes from Latin mīrus ‘wonderful, surprising’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sméyros ‘laughing, smiling’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sméyros‘laughing, smiling’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*smeirosreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmīrus‘wonderful, surprising’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2008Mira

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sméyros‘laughing, smiling’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*smeirosreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmīrus‘wonderful, surprising’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2008Mira

Earliest quotation: 2008, Helge Kragh, The Moon that Wasn't: The Saga of Venus' Spurious Satellite: “The favoured explanation, adopted by Maraldi, was based on…”

The story

Named by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1662, from Latin mīrus (‘wonderful, surprising’).

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *smeiros

marvelling, 11 more

through Latin mīrus ‘wonderful, surprising’

marvel, mirror, admire, admirable, 13 more

Another origin of Mira

  1. Sanskritc. 1500–500 BCEमीरा
  2. Hindic. 1500–presentsame formmīrā‘Mira/Meera, 16th century Indian poetess’
  3. EnglishtodayMira

Today it means

name A binary star in the constellation Cetus, Omicron (ο) Ceti. The system contains a variable red giant and a white dwarf. Its brightness varies from a magnitude 2 at its brightest to a magnitude 10 at its dimmest.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sméyros / Mira

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