From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mej. Cognate with Burmese မီး (mi:), Nuosu ꃆꄔ (mup dut, “fire”), dialectal Old Chinese 𤈦, 燬 (*hmralʔ, “fire”), Tibetan མེ (me) (from Old Tibetan མྱེ (mye)), Tangut 𗜐 (*mə̱¹, “fire”), Japhug smi (“fire”), Horpa ɣmə (“fire”), Hani miq zaq (“fire”), Nusu mi⁵⁵ (“fire”), Naxi mi (“fire”), Bokar ə mə (“fire”), Mizo měi (“fire”) and Jingpho myihprap (“lightning”). Compare Lhao Vo myi:, Zaiwa myi, Luxi Achang mi⁵¹ and Hpon tămì ~ tămè.
mi³¹
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mi (“girl; female; feminine suffix”). Cognate with Burmese အမိ (a.mi., “mother”) (and possibly also မိန်းမ (min:ma., “woman”)), Nuosu ꃌ (myp, “woman; matron; wife”), Tangut 𗕪 (*mjịj¹, “woman”), Japhug tɯ-me (“daughter”), Horpa sme (“daughter; mother”), Hani ssaq miq (“daughter; woman”), Lahu zad mid (“daughter”), Naxi mil (“woman; daughter”), Bokar ȵe məː (“girl; woman; female”) and Proto-Karen *hmɨᴮ (“female; woman”). Compare Zaiwa myiwe, Lashi myi: yi:, Longchuan Achang ȵi³¹ mɔʔ³¹ (“wife”), Luxi Achang mjiʔ³¹ ʑɛ⁵¹ (“wife”) and Hpon mì sà(ʔ) ~ mì zà. Shared roots between "wife" and "woman" occur cross-linguistically, compare English wife and woman.
mi³¹
mi³¹ is rarely used alone for both meanings. For the meaning "wife", mi³¹ is always modified by a genitive form of a personal pronoun or jɔ̃³¹ (“3rd singular pronoun”) (as in jɔ̃³¹ mi³¹), in which case usually a particular wife of someone is referred to. Otherwise, it occurs as a part of a compound word or a phrase, as in mi³¹ lɔ̃⁵⁵ (“married couple (lit. "wife husband")”) or mi³¹ fɔ̃³⁵ ("to get married (lit. "to let the wife in")). For the meaning "female" or "woman", the use of mi³¹ is almost restricted to mi³¹ ɣɛ³¹ (“woman; female”). For the vast of terms referring to female humans or animals, the suffix -mi̠³⁵ is used instead, as in jauʔ³¹ mi̠³⁵ (“wife of mother's brother; mother-in-law”).
From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *r-may ~ *m-ray (“tail; penis”). Cognate with Burmese အမြီး (a.mri:, “tail”), Old Chinese 尾 (*mɯlʔ, “tail, end”), Tibetan རྨེད (rmed, “crupper”), Nuosu ꂪ (hmy, “tail”), Lisu ꓟꓶꓸ (mɯ́, “tail”), Hani daoq miq (“tail”), Naxi mai dal (“tail”), Tangut 𘂴 (*mji̱j¹, “tail; end”), Japhug tɤ-jme (“tail”), Jingpho nmai (“tail”) and Karbi arme (“tail”). Compare Zaiwa shomyi (“tail”), Lhao Vo shamyi: (“tail”), Luxi Achang a³¹ mji³⁵ (“tail”) and Hpon ă mì (“tail”).
mi³¹