mien
English edit
Etymology edit
From French mine (“appearance”) (whence also Danish mine and German Miene), perhaps from Breton min (“face of an animal”), or from Latin minio (“to redden”).[1]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mien (countable and uncountable, plural miens)
- (countable, uncountable) Demeanor; facial expression or attitude, especially one which is intended by its bearer.
- 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Threnody”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 238:
- Gentlest Guardians marked serene / His early hope, his liberal mien; […]
- 1856, Joseph Turnley, The Language of the Eye, →OCLC, page 111:
- Beauty, like all divine gifts, is everywhere to be seen by the eye of the faithful admirer of nature; and, like all spirits, she is scarcely to be described by words. Her countenance and mien, her path, her hue and carriage, often surpass expression, and soothe the enthusiast into reverie and silence.
- 1860, Stephen Foster (lyrics and music), “Jenny's coming o'er the green”[1]:
- Jenny's coming o'er the green, / Fairer form was never seen, / Winning is her gentle mien; / Why do I love her so?
- 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 7, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:
- taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll.
- 2015 July 23, Siobhan Roberts, “John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician”, in The Guardian[2]:
- Although still young at heart and head, he looks more and more like his old friend Archimedes, increasingly bearded and increasingly grey, with an otherworldly mien – a look that should earn him a spot in the online quiz featuring portraits of frumpy old men under the rubric “Prof or Hobo?”
- (countable) A specific facial expression.
- 2007 February 10, Claudia La Rocco, “Stony Miens and Sad Hearts”, in New York Times[3]:
- It’s hard to say which is worse: the press-on smiles favored by many a ballet dancer, or the stony “I’m going to pretend this isn’t happening to me” miens often found in contemporary troupes like White Road.
Translations edit
demeanor; facial expression or attitude, especially one which is intended by its bearer
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specific facial expression
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References edit
Anagrams edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Middle French mien, from Old French meon, from Latin meum, the neuter of meus.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
mien (feminine mienne, masculine plural miens, feminine plural miennes)
Derived terms edit
- le mien (“mine”)
See also edit
Further reading edit
- “mien”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams edit
Limburgish edit
Noun edit
mien f (plural miene)
- Veldeke spelling spelling of Minn
Old French edit
Etymology edit
Adjective edit
mien
Usage notes edit
- chiefly used after an article (un, le, etc.) and before a noun. The noun may be omitted if clear from the context
- un mien fils
- my son
- enveierai le mien
- I will send mine
Descendants edit
- French: mien
Pitcairn-Norfolk edit
Etymology edit
Adjective edit
mien
Plautdietsch edit
Pronoun edit
mien
See also edit
Further reading edit
Saterland Frisian edit
Etymology edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation edit
Determiner edit
mien
References edit
Slovak edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mien f
Noun edit
mien n
Vilamovian edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (file)
Noun edit
mien f
West Frisian edit
Etymology edit
From Old Frisian gemēne, from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moynis. Cognate with German gemein, English mean, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains) and Latin commūnis.
Adjective edit
mien
Inflection edit
Inflection of mien | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | mien | |||
inflected | miene | |||
comparative | miender miener | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | mien | miender miener |
it mienst it mienste | |
indefinite | c. sing. | miene | miendere mienere |
mienste |
n. sing. | mien | miender miener |
mienste | |
plural | miene | miendere mienere |
mienste | |
definite | miene | miendere mienere |
mienste | |
partitive | miens | mienders mieners |
— |
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “mien”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011