Timeline for How did the spelling of 'mien' evolve?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 24, 2016 at 4:41 | comment | added | rogermue | DWDS says German Miene is a loan from French la mine from Breton min beak, mouth, snout. dwds.de/?qu=Miene | |
| Feb 24, 2016 at 4:36 | comment | added | rogermue | There is also the German word die Miene meaning facial expression. There might be a connection. I didn't study the German word as English mien is rare and literary. | |
| Jan 25, 2016 at 0:36 | answer | added | Simon White | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 31, 2015 at 6:01 | comment | added | Barmar | Also, strange spellings sometimes happen due to fashion. Like shoppe, which became popular because it looks archaic or French, and lent an air of charm or quaintness to the establishment. | |
| Mar 31, 2015 at 5:59 | comment | added | Barmar |
I wouldn't be surprised it people simply confused the French mine and mien when the word was borrowed, and adopted the wrong spelling (perhaps even because it looked more foreign). Strange things happen when words jump across languages.
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| Mar 29, 2015 at 18:17 | comment | added | user50720 | @WS2 +1. I missed that insightful observation. Thank you for sharing! | |
| Mar 29, 2015 at 18:00 | comment | added | WS2 | It is paradoxical that this sense in French is spelled mine, which in English is the pronoun, which in French would be le mien, or la mienne. | |
| Mar 29, 2015 at 17:53 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Never heard of it before. I would associate mien with demeano(u)r, perhaps the two are related. | |
| Mar 29, 2015 at 17:23 | history | asked | user50720 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |