Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/mirъ

This Proto-Slavic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Slavic

Etymology

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *meiˀrás, from Proto-Indo-European *mey(H)-ró-s, its Baltic cognates are: Lithuanian mieras (“peace”), Latvian miêrs (“peace”), compare also Albanian mirë (“good”). There may be two Indo-European roots involved, *mey- (“to tie, strengthen”) and *meyh₁- (“soft, mild”). Root-cognates (with different suffixes) include, with the former: Ancient Greek μίτος (mítos, “warp thread”), Proto-Indo-Iranian *mitrás (literally “(that which) causes binding”) (Old Persian 𐎷𐎰𐎼 (mi-θ-r), and Sanskrit मित्र (mitra)); with the latter: Proto-Slavic *milъ (“nice, gentle, mild”), Latin mītis (“mild, calm, peaceful”).

The dual meaning of "peace" and "world" is unique to Slavic, and scholarly opinion is divided on whether this is a purely semantic development (via a meaning of "pact, friendship" to "community, society" to "ecumene, inhabited world") or alternatively an early conflation of two words, with the meaning "world" derived only from the root meaning "to bind", and the meaning "peace" derived from the root meaning "gentle, mild". Possibly *mirъ meaning world derives from earlier *-měrъ(great/big -> world). Compare Proto-Celtic *māros (“great”) and Proto-Germanic *mēri- (“famous”) (> Old High German māri).

Noun

*mȋrъ m

1. peace
2. (East Slavic and South Slavic) world

   Synonym: *světъ

Inflection

Declension of *mȋrъ (hard o-stem, accent paradigm c)

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*mȋrъ	*mȋra	*mȋri
genitive	*mȋra	*mirù	*mĩrъ
dative	*mȋru	*miromà	*miròmъ
accusative	*mȋrъ	*mȋra	*mȋry
instrumental	*mȋrъmь, *mȋromь*	*miromà	*mirý
locative	*mȋrě	*mirù	*mirě̃xъ
vocative	*mire	*mȋra	*mȋri

^* -ъmь in North Slavic, -omь in South Slavic.

Alternative forms

• *měrъ

Derived terms

• *Mironěgъ / *Mironěga or *Miroslavъ / *Miroslava
  • *Miręta
• *miriti (“to reconcile, to pacify”)
  • *mirja
  • *mirьba
• *mirogojь
• *Mirogoščь
• *mirovati
• *mȋrьnъ

Related terms

• *milъ

Descendants

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: мір (mir)
  • Carpathian Rusyn: мір (mir)
  • Russian: мир (mir), миръ (mir) — Pre-reform orthography (1918), міръ (mir) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
    • → Ingrian: miira
    • → Kildin Sami: мырр (myrr)
  • Ukrainian: мир (myr)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: миръ (mirŭ)

    Glagolitic script: ⰿⰹⱃⱏ (mirŭ)

  • Bulgarian: мир (mir)
  • Macedonian: мир (mir)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ми̑р

    Latin script: mȋr, mijer, mir, mier, mȉjer

  • Slovene: mȋr (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: mír, mier
    • Czech: mír
  • Kashubian: mir, mier
  • Old Polish: mir, mier, ḿyr, mńir, mńyr
    • Polish: mir, mierz (in compounds)
  • Slovak: mier
  • Slovincian: mjir
  • Sorbian:
    • Upper Sorbian: měr
    • Lower Sorbian: měr

Further reading

• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1992), “*mirъ/*mira”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 19 (*męs⁽'⁾arь – *morzakъ), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 55
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “мир”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Chernykh, P. Ja. (1993) “мир”, in Историко-этимологический словарь русского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), 3rd edition, volume 1 (а – пантомима), Moscow: Russian Lang., →ISBN, page 534