miraculum

English

Etymology

From Latin mīrāculum. Doublet of milagro and miracle.

Noun

miraculum

1. (rare, nonstandard) A miracle.
   • 1857 October, J. A. Nash, M. P. Parish, “Speculations on the Origin of Plants. By David Rice, M.D.”, in The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. […], volume X, number 4, New York, N.Y.: J. A. Nash & M. P. Parish, footnote by editors, page 206:

     What is a miracle? A miracle—miraculum, wonder, something that astonishes—is simply a thing out of the common course, and is no more an exhibition of power than the ordinary operations of nature. […] If a sick man, almost too feeble to move a limb, should all at once rise from his bed, bid his doctor and nurse farewell, and go to work in his field, that would be a miracle, a miraculum, a most astonishing occurrence.

   • 1869, Benjamin Place [pseudonym; Edward Thring], chapter VI, in Thoughts on Life-Science, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 73–74:

     [W]hat is there wonderful in these ever-present spirit-agencies and intelligent wills, whilst working under God every material force, changing at any moment whether perceptibly or imperceptibly the direction of the material forces they wield; what miraculum would there be if every drop of rain is guided or shot through air by a living power?

   • 1881, Warren J[udson] Brier, A Soldier of Fortune: A Modern Comedy-Drama in Five Acts. […] (The Star Drama), Chicago, Ill.: T[homas] S[tewart] Denison, →OCLC, act III, scene i, page 30:

     It’s a miraculum she warn’t tored all into little pieces no bigger dan a wash tub.

   • 2001 October, Bronwyn Cleland, “Deux Ex Machina”, in Room 14 at 8 O’Clock: An Anthology of Poetry & Short Stories (The Richmond Writers’ Circle Anthology 2001), Richmond, London: Richmond Writers’ Circle, →ISBN, page 40:

     She had no time for the virtues of patience and we would hear the familiar sigh pitched to perfection and ‘All we need, all we want is a miraculum, just one small one.’ As the convoluted talk of illusory deities and miracles spiralled, we elder children sometimes deviated from my mother’s doctrine by demanding a straight answer as to how she saw her miracle manifesting.

   • 2020, Stanisław Rosik, “The space of the turning point in the context of its neighbours: Pomeranian communities within the circle of the pagan ‘international’”, in Stanisław Rosik, editor, Europe Reaches the Baltic: Poland and Pomerania in the Shaping of European Civilization (10^th–12^th Centuries) (Scripta Historica Europaea; 6), Wrocław: University of Wrocław, →ISBN, section 3 (Pomerania – Poland – Europe. In search of their own paths), subsection II (Pomerania in the zone of Polish expansion in the age of Bolesław III the Wrymouth. Conquest and Christianization), page 330:

     This theological interpretation is meaningfully illustrated with a miraculum, which according to Ebo (III, 1) happened in Güzkow. An enormous swarm of terrifying flies flew out of a pagan temple destroyed during Otto’s missions, embodying the residing evil forces. Chased away with prayers and signs of cross they ultimately flew to Rugia.

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)mey-der.

Proto-Indo-European *sméyros

Proto-Italic *smeiros

Latin mīrus

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.

Proto-Italic *-ājō

Proto-Italic *-āō

Latin -or

Latin mīror

Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr

Proto-Indo-European *-om

Proto-Indo-European *-trom

Proto-Indo-European *-tlom

Proto-Italic *-klom

Latin -culum

Latin mīrāculum

From mīror (“to wonder, marvel at”) + -culum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [miːˈraː.kʊ.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [miˈraː.ku.lum]

Noun

mīrāculum n (genitive mīrāculī); second declension

1. wonder, marvel, miracle; a wonderful, strange or marvellous thing.

   Synonyms: portentum, mōnstrum, ostentum, prōdigium, mīrum

2. wonderfulness, marvellousness.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	mīrāculum	mīrācula
genitive	mīrāculī	mīrāculōrum
dative	mīrāculō	mīrāculīs
accusative	mīrāculum	mīrācula
ablative	mīrāculō	mīrāculīs
vocative	mīrāculum	mīrācula

Derived terms

• mīrāculārius
• mīrāculātor
• mīrāculō

Related terms

• mīrābiliārius
• mīrābilis
• mīrābilitās
• mīrābiliter
• mīrābundus
• mīrācula
• mīrandus
• mīrātiō
• mīrātor
• mīrātrīx
• mīrē
• mīrificē
• mīrificentia
• mīrificō
• mīrificus
• mīrimodīs
• mīriō
• mīrō
• mīror
• mīrus

Descendants

• → Albanian: mrekulli (early borrowing)
• →? Aromanian: mirachi, mirache
• → Asturian: milagru
• → Catalan: miracle
• → Friulian: meracul
• → Italian: miracolo
  • → Romanian: miracol
• → Neapolitan: miraculo
• → Occitan: miracle
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: miragre
  • Galician: milagre
  • Portuguese: milagre
• → Old French: miracle (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Spanish: miraglo, milagro
  • Spanish: milagro (see there for further descendants)
• → Portuguese: miráculo (learned)
• → Romanian: mirac
• → Sicilian: miràculu
• → Spanish: miráculo (learned)

References

• “miraculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “miraculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “miraculum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.