mieć

Old Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *jьměti. First attested in the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /mjɛ(ː)t͡ɕ/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /mjɛt͡ɕ/, /mjet͡ɕ/

Verb

mieć impf

1. to have, to be in possession of
2. to have, to hold (to contain in one's hands)
3. to have (to host someone or be hosted)
4. (in collocation with some nouns) to do
5. to consider someone as something
6. to be supposed to, to have to
7. (with the passive participle) to have (e.g. to have something (that is) cooked)
8. (reflexive with się) to behave
9. (reflexive with się) to fare (to be in any state, or pass through any experience, good or bad)

Declension

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Masurian: niécz
• Polish: mieć
• Silesian: mieć

References

• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, editor (2011–2015), “mieć”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mjɛt͡ɕ/
• (Middle Polish) IPA^(key): /ˈmjɛt͡ɕ/, /ˈmjet͡ɕ/

• Audio 1

  (file)

• Audio 2

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt͡ɕ
• Syllabification: mieć
• Homophone: miedź

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Polish mieć.

Verb

mieć impf (frequentative miewać)

1. (transitive) to have

   Mam kota. ― I have a cat.

   Mam daleko do szkoły. ― It's a long way to school for me. (literally, “I have a long way to school.”)

2. (intransitive) to be (for an age)

   Mam 22 lata. ― I am 22 . (literally I have 22 years.)

3. (transitive) used as a semantically weak verb with some nouns
4. (transitive, colloquial) to have, to have sex with

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:uprawiać seks

5. (transitive) to consider someone as something
6. (with the passive participle) to have (e.g. to have something (that is) cooked)

   Mam cały wieczór zaplanowany. ― I have the whole evening planned.

7. (transitive, formal, in the past) creates a future in the past; would, was going to
8. (auxiliary, intransitive) to be supposed to must, to have to, to need to

   Mamy iść na zakupy. ― We're supposed to to go shopping.

9. (intransitive) to feel something
10. (reflexive with się) to fare (to be in any state, or pass through any experience, good or bad)
11. (reflexive with się) to consider oneself

    Masz się za lepszego? ― You think you're better than me?

12. (reflexive with się, obsolete) to head somewhere or
13. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish) to behave

    Synonym: zachowywać się

    Synonym: działać

14. (reflexive with się) to appear, to bode
15. (reflexive with się) to be in relation to something
16. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish) to address, to turn towards
17. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish) to function
18. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish) to be had
19. (intransitive, impersonal, strictly in the negative) to be gone, to not be present, there is no

    Antonym: być

Conjugation

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

mieć

1. second-person singular imperative of mieść

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), mieć is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 341 times in scientific texts, 207 times in news, 393 times in essays, 547 times in fiction, and 1103 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 2591 times, making it the 17th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.

References

Further reading

• mieć in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• mieć in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “mieć”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “mieć się”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• “MIEĆ”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 02.02.2022
• “MIEĆ%20SIĘ”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 2023 January 20
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “mieć”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “mieć”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861‎
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1902), “Mieć, Imieć, Mać, Miewać, Miewować, Miewywać”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎ (in Polish), volume 2, Warsaw, page 948
• M. Arcta Słownik Staropolski/Mieć on the Polish Wikisource.Wikisource ^pl

Silesian

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish mieć.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmjɛt͡ɕ/
• Rhymes: -ɛt͡ɕ
• Syllabification: mieć

Verb

mieć impf

1. (transitive) to have
2. (intransitive) to feel something
3. (auxiliary, intransitive) to be supposed to must, to have to, to need to
4. (transitive) to consider someone as something
5. (reflexive with sie) to fare (to be in any state, or pass through any experience, good or bad)

Conjugation

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• miec in dykcjonorz.eu
• mieć in silling.org
• mieć_sie in silling.org
• mieć_za in silling.org