mien

English

Etymology

From French mine (“appearance”) (whence also Danish mine and German Miene), perhaps from Breton min (“face of an animal”), or from Latin minio (“to redden”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /miːn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophones: mean, mesne

Noun

mien (countable and uncountable, plural miens)

1. (countable, uncountable) Demeanor; facial expression or attitude, especially one which is intended by its bearer.
   • 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Threnody”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 238:

     Gentlest Guardians marked serene / His early hope, his liberal mien; […]

   • 1856, Joseph Turnley, The Language of the Eye, →OCLC, page 111:

     Beauty, like all divine gifts, is everywhere to be seen by the eye of the faithful admirer of nature; and, like all spirits, she is scarcely to be described by words. Her countenance and mien, her path, her hue and carriage, often surpass expression, and soothe the enthusiast into reverie and silence.

   • 1860, Stephen Foster (lyrics and music), “Jenny's coming o'er the green”‎:

     Jenny's coming o'er the green, / Fairer form was never seen, / Winning is her gentle mien; / Why do I love her so?

   • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 7, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll.

   • 2015 July 23, Siobhan Roberts, “John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician”, in The Guardian‎:

     Although still young at heart and head, he looks more and more like his old friend Archimedes, increasingly bearded and increasingly grey, with an otherworldly mien – a look that should earn him a spot in the online quiz featuring portraits of frumpy old men under the rubric “Prof or Hobo?”

2. (countable) A specific facial expression.
   • 2007 February 10, Claudia La Rocco, “Stony Miens and Sad Hearts”, in New York Times‎:

     It’s hard to say which is worse: the press-on smiles favored by many a ballet dancer, or the stony “I’m going to pretend this isn’t happening to me” miens often found in contemporary troupes like White Road.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Emin, Mine, mine

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French mien, from Old French meon, from Latin meum, the neuter of meus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mjɛ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

mien (feminine mienne, masculine plural miens, feminine plural miennes)

1. (archaic) my

Derived terms

• le mien (“mine”)

See also

• mon, ma, mes

Further reading

• “mien”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• mine, miné

Limburgish

Noun

mien f (plural miene)

1. Veldeke spelling spelling of Minn

Old French

Etymology

Latin meum.

Adjective

mien

1. (stressed) my; mine

Usage notes

• chiefly used after an article (un, le, etc.) and before a noun. The noun may be omitted if clear from the context

  un mien fils

  my son

  enveierai le mien

  I will send mine

Descendants

• French: mien

Pitcairn-Norfolk

Etymology

From English main.

Adjective

mien

1. main

Plautdietsch

Pronoun

mien

1. my

See also

• dien (your, thy)
• sien (his)
• mie (me)
• ons (our)
• onsa (us)

Further reading

• Plautdietsch Lexicon of 17,000 words

Saterland Frisian

Etymology

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /min/

Determiner

mien

1. feminine of min
2. neuter of min
3. plural of min

References

• Marron C. Fort (2015) “mien”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

mien f

1. genitive plural of mena

Noun

mien n

1. genitive plural of meno

Vilamovian

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

mien f

1. carrot

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian gemēne, from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱom-moynis. Cognate with German gemein, English mean, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains) and Latin commūnis.

Adjective

mien

1. common, communal
2. common, everyday
3. general

Inflection

Derived terms

• mienskip

Further reading

• “mien”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011