# mirror



## giberian

Hello, I'd like to know how what's the word for *mirror* in other languages.

In german it's: *Spiegel*

In spanish, they say: *espejo

...

*Thanks a lot for your answers!
Best wishes, Giberian.


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## robbie_SWE

In Romanian it's *oglindă* (we also have the poetic version *specul* and the older word *mirază*). In Transylvania you can also stumble upon *căutătoare *(literally "seeker"). 

In Swedish it's as simple as *spegel*. 

Hope this helped! 

PS: we have the "All languages" forum now, you should've started this thread there.


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## giberian

Oh, I didn´t know that, I think the mods will move the thread there...
Thanks for your first answers, and for all to come!
Giberian.


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## Lello4ever

In Italian is "specchio"


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## Orreaga

Hungarian    *tükör*
Czech    *zrcadlo*
Catalan     *mirall*


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## Aserolf

En español: *espejo*


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## Kael

Latin: Speculum, -i


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## Cilquiestsuens

IN French. *un Miroir*

In Colloquial people say *une Glace*

If you're talking of a car, it is called: *un Rétroviseur*

Cheers


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## ronanpoirier

Portuguese: Espelho


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## SerinusCanaria3075

Macedonian
*Огледало* [Ogledalo]

Serbian
Огледало [Ogledalo]

Russian
*Зеркало* [Zerkala]

Ukranian 
*Дзеркало* [Dzerkalo] 
Does the -o at the end sound like Russian?

Greek
*Καθρέφτης* [kathréftis]


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## Cosol

Mandarin Chinese:
镜子 (Traditional: 鏡子, Pinyin: jìngzi)

Esperanto:
Spegulo


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic it's: مرآة mir'aat; literally: "the seeing tool/thing".


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## Conchita57

Mahaodeh said:


> In Arabic it's: مرآة mir'aat; literally: "the seeing tool/thing".



And in the Lebanese dialect it's:

*mreye* (pronounced /m'reje/, with alveolar 'r').


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## avok

Turkish:

*Ayna*


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## Mjolnir

*Hebrew*: מראה (_mar'a_) or ראי (_rei_).


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## Flaminius

Hello,

Japanese: 鏡 (_kagami_)

Latvian: spogulis
<— Another Latinate word in this thread


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## Conchita57

In Galician: *espello*.

In Basque: *ispilu*.


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## DrWatson

Finnish: *peili* or *kuvastin* (the latter is more rare and sounds a bit poetic)


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## Cilquiestsuens

Mahaodeh said:


> In Arabic it's: مرآة mir'aat; literally: "the seeing tool/thing".


 
the French word *Miroir* originates from the verb *Mirer*. This verb appears first in the language at the end of the 12th century. (Cf. Here for those who can read French).

This verb is said to have been borrowed from Italian *Mira*.

I wonder if it is not a borrowing from Arabic (the date will make sense, a number of years after the beginning of the crusades)...

Has any one any information?


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## lcfatima

In Urdu/Hindi:

sheesha

and

aina


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## Conchita57

When I first started learning English, mirrors were still called 'looking glasses'...


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## Nizo

Esperanto:  spegulo
Afrikaans:  spieël
Breton:  melezour
Malagasy:  fitaratra
Zulu:  isibuko, izibuko
Albanian:  pasqyrë
Hawaiian:  aniani


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## cherine

Cilquiestsuens said:


> the French word *Miroir* originates from the verb *Mirer*. This verb appears first in the language at the end of the 12th century. (Cf. Here for those who can read French).
> 
> This verb is said to have been borrowed from Italian *Mira*.
> 
> I wonder if it is not a borrowing from Arabic (the date will make sense, a number of years after the beginning of the crusades)...
> 
> Has any one any information?


I don't think they're related in any way.
The origin of the Arabic word is the verb ra'a رأى , so the "m" is an "adding", along with another morpholigical element (The "shape" of the word", to denote an object. While the "m" is mirror and miroir is an original letter.


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## robbie_SWE

^Couldn't the origin of _mira_ actually be the Latin *mirari*? I seem to recall its meaning as being "to marvel at".

 robbie


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## Flaminius

^The etymology of the English _mirror_ confirms the Latin origin.


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## kusurija

Lirhuanian:
veidrodis (veidas = face, rodyti = to show)


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## avok

lcfatima said:


> In Urdu/Hindi:
> 
> sheesha
> 
> and
> 
> *aina*


 
I wonder why Urdu/Hindi *Aina* and Turkish *ayna* are similar/identical. *Avok is pondering* it must be from Persian...


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## Samaruc

Orreaga said:


> Catalan     *mirall*



Also *espill*, especially in Valencia.


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## MarX

In Indonesian:

*kaca *and *cermin*

*c *= English *ch*
*e* = schwa


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## jana.bo99

Slovenian: Ogledalo!

Croatian:   Ogledalo!

(too many: ogledalo!)


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## Saluton

SerinusCanaria3075 said:


> Ukranian
> *Дзеркало* [Dzerkalo]
> Does the -o at the end sound like Russian?


No, -o in Ukrainian is distinct. The unstressed vowels are not reduced in Ukrainian, unlike Russian. It seems that the word for mirror is derived from the verb meaning 'to look' in all Slavic languages.


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## Gżegżółka

In Polish:

*zwierciadło* or *lustro*


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## blue_jewel

In Tagalog: Salamin


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## apmoy70

Greek:

In the Modern language we use the masc. noun *«καθρέπτης»* [kaˈθreptis], and colloquially *«καθρέφτης»* [kaˈθreftis] < Byz.Gr. masc. *«καθρόπτης» kathróptēs* and *«καθρέπτης» kathréptēs* < possible intermediate form *«*κάθροπτον» *káthropton* following metathesis and subsequent aspiration of the Classical masc. noun *«κάτοπτρον» kắtŏptrŏn*, the ancient name of mirror < compound; prefix, preposition, and adverb *«κατὰ» katà*, and *«κάτα» kátă* --> _downwards, against, along, through, over, across, concerning_ (PIE *km̥t- _down, with, along_ cf Hitt. katta (postpos.), _along, with_) + Classical v. *«ὄπωπα» ópōpă* (found only in perfect tense with present meaning) --> _to watch, observe, view, contemplate_ (PIE *h₃ekʷ- _to see_ cf Skt. अक्षि ‎(ákṣi), _eye_, Av. aiβii- _to watch_, Proto-Slavic *oko, _eye_).


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## ilocas2

In Croatian there is also *zrcalo* besides *ogledalo*


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## Messquito

Cosol said:


> Mandarin Chinese:
> 镜子 (Traditional: 鏡子, Pinyin: jìngzi)


鏡
＝
金(metal/gold)
＋
竟(ultimate;also acts as the sound indicator)
--->the metal with ultimate luster, which can reflect images. (Through this, you can see that in ancient China, mirrors are made of metal.)


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## Gavril

Armenian *հայելի* (_hayeli_) "mirror" < the verb հայել "to look out, to gaze upon"

Welsh _*drych*_ "mirror", also "appearance, image" < the same root as Greek _*dérk*estha_i "to look", Irish _adcon_*darc *"I have seen", etc.


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## 810senior

I know the Japanese instance has already been introduced here but I would as well like to add something more about its etymology.
*kagami*(鏡), _kage_ 'a shadow' + _-mi_ 'to see', _kag-a-mi_ 'shadow-seeing, seeing a reflected(mirrored) shadow'.


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## apmoy70

apmoy70 said:


> Greek:
> 
> In the Modern language we use the masc. noun *«καθρέπτης»* [kaˈθreptis], and colloquially *«καθρέφτης»* [kaˈθreftis] < Byz.Gr. masc. *«καθρόπτης» kathróptēs* and *«καθρέπτης» kathréptēs* < possible intermediate form *«*κάθροπτον» *káthropton* following metathesis and subsequent _aspiration_ of the Classical masc. noun *«κάτοπτρον» kắtŏptrŏn*, the ancient name of mirror < compound; prefix, preposition, and adverb *«κατὰ» katà*, and *«κάτα» kátă* --> _downwards, against, along, through, over, across, concerning_ (PIE *km̥t- _down, with, along_ cf Hitt. katta (postpos.), _along, with_) + Classical v. *«ὄπωπα» ópōpă* (found only in perfect tense with present meaning) --> _to watch, observe, view, contemplate_ (PIE *h₃ekʷ- _to see_ cf Skt. अक्षि ‎(ákṣi), _eye_, Av. aiβii- _to watch_, Proto-Slavic *oko, _eye_).


Apologies for quoting myself, I meant spirantization [t] > [θ]


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## Copperknickers

Scottish Gaelic: *sgàthan *(apparently derives from Irsh 'scath' which means 'shadow', in the sense that a shadow is a kind of reflection).


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## AutumnOwl

robbie_SWE said:


> In Swedish it's as simple as *spegel*.


From middle-Latin speglum.

An Old Norse word for mirror was skuggsjá, related to shadow and (to) see, the mirror was seen as a container for shadows.


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## ThomasK

Quite interesting, I now think, because a  new thread focusses on deception/ deceiving by means of the eyes, and that reminded me of "*voorspiegelen*", something like mirroring something before/ in front of someone's eyes... See also the thread on "to mirror" here...


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## raamez

Arabic had once a word for Mirror of Latin origin which is sajanjal سجنجل. All sources agree that this is a rumi loanword (rumi usually equals Byzantine in Arabic), but they don't agree if this Latin word was sexangulus or speculum.


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