mica

See also: Mica, mică, and míca

English

A sheet of mica

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca (“grain, crumb”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kə/, enPR: mīkə
• Rhymes: -aɪkə

Noun

mica (countable and uncountable, plural micas)

2. (mineralogy) Any of a group of hydrous aluminosilicate minerals characterized by highly perfect cleavage, so that they readily separate into very thin leaves, more or less elastic.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 214:

     His little eyes glittered like mica discs with curiosity, though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness.

Derived terms

• Formica

Translations

hydrous aluminosilicate minerals

• Bengali: অভ্র (bn) (obhro)
• Bulgarian: слюда (bg) f (sljuda)
• Catalan: mica (ca) f
• Cheyenne: óova'e
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 雲母／云母 (wan⁴ mou⁵)

  Mandarin: 雲母／云母 (zh) (yúnmǔ)

• Czech: slída (cs) f
• Dutch: mica (nl) n, glimmer (nl) n (uncountable) m (countable)
• Esperanto: glimo
• Estonian: vilk
• Finnish: kiille (fi)
• French: mica (fr) m
• Galician: mica (gl) f
• German: Glimmer (de) m
• Greek: μαρμαρυγίας (el) m (marmarygías)
• Gujarati: અભ્રક (abhrak), અબરખ (abarakh)
• Hindi: अभ्रक (hi) (abhrak)
• Hungarian: csillám (hu), ^{(please verify)} csillámpala (hu)
• Italian: mica (it) f
• Japanese: 雲母 (うんも, unmo, うんぼ, unbo, きらら, kirara, きら, kira), マイカ (maika)
• Kannada: ಅಭ್ರಕ (kn) (abhraka)
• Kazakh: слюдалар (slüdalar)
• Korean: 운모(雲母) (ko) (unmo)
• Lithuanian: žėrutis m
• Macedonian: ли́скун m (lískun)
• Malayalam: അഭ്രം (ml) (abhraṁ)
• Marathi: अभ्रक (abhrak)
• Navajo: tsésǫʼ
• Newar: फिपू (phipū)
• Norwegian: glimmer (no)
• Persian: میکا‎ (fa) (mikâ)
• Polish: mika (pl) f, łyszczyk m
• Portuguese: mica (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਅਬਰਕ (pa) (abarak)
• Romanian: mică (ro) f
• Russian: слюда́ (ru) f (sljudá)
• Scottish Gaelic: mìoca f
• Slovak: sľuda f
• Slovene: sljuda (sl)
• Spanish: mica (es) f
• Swedish: glimmer (sv) n
• Tagalog: mika
• Telugu: అభ్రకము (te) (abhrakamu)
• Yakut: сүлүүдэ (sülüüde)

See also

• biotite
• lepidolite
• muscovite
• paragonite
• phlogopite

Further reading

• mica on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• -amic, -icam, ACMI, CIMA, CMIA, Maci, aMCI, amic, cami, cima, iMac

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.kə/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ka/

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Catalan mica, from Vulgar Latin *mīcca, from Latin mīca (“crumb”) with expression gemination of /k/. Compare Occitan mica.

Noun

mica f (plural miques)

1. a bit, a small piece

Derived terms

• de mica en mica
• miqueta
• una mica
• una mica de

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin mīca.

Noun

mica f (plural miques)

1. (mineralogy) mica

References

• “mica” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “mica”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “mica” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “mica” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧ca

Noun

mica n (plural mica's)

1. (mineralogy) mica

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca. Doublet of mie and miche.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

mica f (plural micas)

1. (mineralogy) mica

Further reading

• “mica”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca.

Noun

mica f (uncountable)

1. (mineralogy) mica

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ka/
• Rhymes: -ika
• Hyphenation: mì‧ca

Etymology 1

From Latin mīca, from Proto-Italic *smīkā, from Proto-Indo-European *smeyg- (“small, thin, delicate”).

Noun

mica f (plural miche)

1. (archaic or literary) breadcrumb
2. (by extension) bit, morsel

   Synonym: minuzzolo

Related terms

• micella

Adverb

mica

1. (colloquial) not

   Mica male! ― Not bad!

2. (colloquial) hardly, you know

   Mica sono stupido

   I’m hardly stupid; I’m not stupid, you know

3. (colloquial) bit

   Non è mica cambiato ― It hasn't changed one bit

4. (colloquial) at all

   Non costa mica molto ― It is not at all expensive

5. (colloquial) by any chance

   Non hai mica trovato il mio portafoglio?

   Have you seen my wallet by any chance?

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin mīca, the same source as the above.

Noun

mica f (plural miche)

1. (mineralogy) mica (mineral)

Anagrams

• cami, cima

Latin

Alternative forms

• mīcca (attested in 1485, Du Cange)

Etymology

Uncertain:

• traditionally derived from Proto-Italic *smīkā, from Proto-Indo-European *smeyg- (“small, thin, delicate”), related to Ancient Greek (σ)μῑκρός ((s)mīkrós) and smicker - details there.
• in view of meaning (1), De Vaan (2008) with Nyman (1987) prefer Proto-Italic *meikā (“a glittering particle”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyk- (“to blink”), whence also micō .

Attested from Cato onwards.

A number of Romance forms, e.g. Romanian mic, Calabrian miccu, Sicilian miccu reflect an unattested adjective *mīccus - this is probably unrelated, being a borrowing from Ancient Greek μῑκκός (mīkkós), variant of μῑκρός (mīkrós, “small”); the form *mīcca is associated with the meaning “loaf of bread” particularly in Gallo-Romance and Gallo-Italic.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.ka/, [ˈmiːkä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ka/, [ˈmiːkä]

Noun

mīca f (genitive mīcae); first declension

1. a grain (esp. a glittering one: of salt, marble, etc.), crumb
2. (Medieval Latin, Gallia) a miche (a round loaf of brown bread)
3. (New Latin, mineralogy) mica

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	mīca	mīcae
Genitive	mīcae	mīcārum
Dative	mīcae	mīcīs
Accusative	mīcam	mīcās
Ablative	mīcā	mīcīs
Vocative	mīca	mīcae

Derived terms

• mīcārius
• mīcidus
• mīcīna
• mīcula
• mīcō

Descendants

• Eastern Romance:
  • Romanian: mică
• Italian: mica
• Old French: mie
  • French: mie
• Old Galician-Portuguese: miga
  • Galician: miga
  • Portuguese: miga
• Old Spanish: miga
  • Spanish: miga
• → English: mica
• → French: mica
• → Galician: mica
• → Portuguese: mica
• → Spanish: mica
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *mīcca
  • Aragonese: mica (in no mica "not")
  • Old French: miche
    • French: miche
    • → Basque: mitsika
    • → Breton: méchen
    • → Portuguese: micha
  • Italian: frammica (“crumb”) (Marche)
  • Ligurian: micca (“a small loaf”) (Genoa)
  • Piedmontese: mica
  • Old Occitan:
    • Catalan: mica
    • Occitan: mica
  • → Alemannic German: Miigge
  • → Dutch: mik
  • → West Frisian: mik

References

• “mīca” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “mīca”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 378

Further reading

• “mica”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mica”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mica in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• mica in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

Portuguese

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin mīca. Compare the inherited doublet miga.

Noun

mica f (plural micas)

1. (mineralogy) mica (hydrous aluminosilicate mineral)

Related terms

• micela
• miga
• migalha

Etymology 2

Verb

mica

1. inflection of micar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmi.ka]
• Rhymes: -ikɐ

Adjective

mica

1. definite nominative/accusative feminine singular of mic

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca. Compare the inherited doublet miga.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmika/ [ˈmi.ka]
• Rhymes: -ika
• Syllabification: mi‧ca

Noun

mica f (plural micas)

1. (mineralogy) mica

Related terms

• micáceo
• miga, migaja

Further reading

• “mica”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014