mica

See also: Mica, Míča, mică, and míca

English

A sheet of mica

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca (“grain, crumb”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪ.kə/, enPR: mīkə
• Rhymes: -aɪkə

Noun

mica (countable and uncountable, plural micas)

2. (mineralogy) Any of a group of hydrous aluminosilicate minerals characterized by highly perfect cleavage, so that they readily separate into very thin leaves, more or less elastic.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 214:

     His little eyes glittered like mica discs with curiosity, though he tried to keep up a bit of superciliousness.

Derived terms

• Formica
• mica-schist

Translations

hydrous aluminosilicate minerals

Bengali: অভ্র (bn) (obhro) Bulgarian: слюда (bg) f (sljuda) Catalan: mica (ca) f Cheyenne: óova'e Chinese: Cantonese: 雲母 / 云母 (wan4 mou5) Mandarin: 雲母 / 云母 (zh) (yúnmǔ) Czech: slída (cs) f Dutch: mica (nl) n, glimmer (nl) n (uncountable) m (countable) Esperanto: glimo Estonian: vilk Finnish: kiille (fi) French: mica (fr) m Galician: mica (gl) f German: Glimmer (de) m Greek: μαρμαρυγίας (el) m (marmarygías) Gujarati: અભ્રક (abhrak), અબરખ (abarakh) Hindi: अभ्रक (hi) (abhrak) Hungarian: csillám (hu), (please verify) csillámpala (hu) Indonesian: mika (id), abrak (id) Italian: mica (it) f Japanese: 雲母 (ja) (うんも, unmo, うんぼ, unbo, きらら, kirara, きら, kira), マイカ (maika) Kannada: ಅಭ್ರಕ (kn) (abhraka) Kazakh: слюдалар (slüdalar) Korean: 운모(雲母) (ko) (unmo) Lithuanian: žėrutis m Macedonian: ли́скун m (lískun) Malayalam: അഭ്രം (ml) (abhraṁ) Maori: maeka Marathi: अभ्रक (abhrak) Navajo: tsésǫʼ Newar: फिपू (phipū) Norwegian: glimmer (no) Persian: میکا (fa) (mikâ) Polish: mika (pl) f, łyszczyk m Portuguese: mica (pt) f Punjabi: ਅਬਰਕ (pa) (abarak) Romanian: mică (ro) f Russian: слюда́ (ru) f (sljudá) Scottish Gaelic: mìoca f Slovak: sľuda f Slovene: sljuda (sl) Spanish: mica (es) f Swedish: glimmer (sv) n Tagalog: mika Telugu: అభ్రకము (te) (abhrakamu) Thai: ไมกา (mai-gâa) Yakut: сүлүүдэ (sülüüde)

See also

• biotite
• lepidolite
• muscovite
• paragonite
• phlogopite

Further reading

• mica on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• CIMA, CMIA, aMCI, -amic, Cima, ACMI, cami, cima, amic, Maci, iMac, -icam

Aragonese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmika/
• Rhymes: -ika
• Syllabification: mi‧ca

Etymology 1

Vulgar Latin *mīcca, from Latin mīca (“crumb”) with expression gemination of /k/. Compare Occitan mica and Catalan mica.

Noun

mica f

1. a bit, a small piece

Adverb

mica

1. a bit, few
2. (in negative phrases) at all

   No me fa mica goi. ― I don't like it at all.

3. any

   No gastes mica d’aceite ― Don't use any oil

   No queda mica de sal. ― There isn't any salt left.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin mīca.

Noun

mica f

1. (mineralogy) mica

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈmi.kə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈmi.ka]

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Catalan mica, from Vulgar Latin *mīcca, from Latin mīca (“crumb”) with expression gemination of /k/. Compare Occitan mica and Aragonese mica.

Noun

mica f (plural miques)

1. a bit, a small piece

Derived terms

• de mica en mica
• miqueta
• una mica
• una mica de

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin mīca.

Noun

mica f (plural miques)

1. (mineralogy) mica

References

• “mica” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “mica”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “mica” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “mica” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

mica

Wikipedia ^nl

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mi‧ca

Noun

mica n (plural mica's)

1. (mineralogy) mica

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca. Doublet of mie and miche.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

mica f (plural micas)

1. (mineralogy) mica

Derived terms

• micaschiste

Further reading

• “mica”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mīca.

Noun

mica f (uncountable)

1. (mineralogy) mica

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ka/
• Rhymes: -ika
• Hyphenation: mì‧ca

Etymology 1

From Latin mīca, from Proto-Italic *smīkā, from Proto-Indo-European *smeyg- (“small, thin, delicate”).

Noun

mica f (plural miche)

1. (archaic or literary) breadcrumb
2. (by extension) bit, morsel

   Synonym: minuzzolo

Related terms

• micella

Adverb

mica

1. (colloquial) not

   Mica male! ― Not bad!

2. (colloquial) hardly, you know

   Mica sono stupido

   I’m hardly stupid; I’m not stupid, you know

3. (colloquial) bit

   Non è mica cambiato ― It hasn't changed one bit

4. (colloquial) at all

   Non costa mica molto ― It is not at all expensive

5. (colloquial) by any chance

   Non hai mica trovato il mio portafoglio?

   Have you seen my wallet by any chance?

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin mīca, the same source as the above.

Noun

mica f (plural miche)

1. (mineralogy) mica (mineral)

Anagrams

• cami, cima

Latin

Alternative forms

• mīcca (attested in 1485, Du Cange)

Etymology

Uncertain:

• traditionally derived from Proto-Italic *(s)mīkā, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meyk- (“small, thin, delicate”), related to Ancient Greek (σ)μῑκρός ((s)mīkrós) – details there.
• in view of meaning (1), De Vaan (2008) with Nyman (1987) prefer Proto-Italic *meikā (“a glittering particle”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyk- (“to blink”), whence also micō.

Attested from Cato onwards.

A number of Romance forms, e.g. Romanian mic, Neapolitan miccu, Calabrian/Sicilian miccu, reflect an unattested adjective *mīccus. This is probably unrelated, being a borrowing from Ancient Greek μῑκκός (mīkkós), variant of μῑκρός (mīkrós, “small”); the form *mīcca is associated with the meaning “loaf of bread” particularly in Gallo-Romance and Gallo-Italic.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.ka/, [ˈmiːkä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ka/, [ˈmiːkä]

Noun

mīca f (genitive mīcae); first declension

1. a grain (esp. a glittering one: of salt, marble, etc.), crumb
2. (Medieval Latin, Gallia) a miche (a round loaf of brown bread)
3. (New Latin, mineralogy) mica

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	mīca	mīcae
genitive	mīcae	mīcārum
dative	mīcae	mīcīs
accusative	mīcam	mīcās
ablative	mīcā	mīcīs
vocative	mīca	mīcae

Derived terms

• mīcārius
• mīcidus
• mīcīna
• mīcula
• mīcō

Descendants

• Eastern Romance:
  • Romanian: mică
• Italian: mica
• Old French: mie
  • French: mie
• Old Galician-Portuguese: miga
  • Galician: miga
  • Portuguese: miga
• Old Spanish: miga
  • Spanish: miga
• → English: mica
• → French: mica
• → Galician: mica
• → Portuguese: mica
• → Spanish: mica
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *mīcca
  • Aragonese: mica (in no mica "not")
  • Old French: miche
    • French: miche
    • → Basque: mitsika
    • → Breton: méchen
    • → Portuguese: micha
  • Italian: frammica (“crumb”) (Marche)
  • Ligurian: micca (“a small loaf”) (Genoa)
  • Piedmontese: mica
  • Old Occitan:
    • Catalan: mica
    • Occitan: mica
  • → Alemannic German: Miigge
  • → Dutch: mik
  • → West Frisian: mik

References

• “mīca” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “mīca”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 378

1. Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “mīca”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 6/2: Mercatio–Mneme, page 76

Further reading

• “mica”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mica”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "mica", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• mica in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.kɐ/

• Hyphenation: mi‧ca

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin mīca. Doublet of miga.

Noun

mica f (plural micas)

1. (mineralogy) mica (hydrous aluminosilicate mineral)

   Synonym: (Brazil) malacacheta

2. (Portugal) sheet protector (clear plastic sleeve for documents)
3. (electronics) mica insulator
   1. (by extension) any such insulator

      mica de silicone

      silicone insulator

4. a little bit, crum
5. (Portugal, regional) goat

Related terms

• micela
• miga
• migalha

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

mica

1. inflection of micar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

References

• “mica”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “mica”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “mica”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “mica” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmi.ka]
• Rhymes: -ikɐ

Adjective

mica

1. definite nominative/accusative feminine singular of mic

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

mica

Wikipedia ^es

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mīca. Compare the inherited doublet miga.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmika/ [ˈmi.ka]
• Rhymes: -ika
• Syllabification: mi‧ca

Noun

mica f (plural micas)

1. (mineralogy) mica
2. (playground games, uncountable, El Salvador) tag, it (children's chasing game)

Related terms

• micáceo
• miga, migaja

Further reading

• “mica”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
• “mica”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010
• ¿Recuerdas cómo te divertías de pequeño? Estos son los juegos más tradicionales en El Salvador – Diario El Salvador
• Los juegos tradicionales de El Salvador de nuestra infancia | Guanacos