mien
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Appendix:Variations of "mien"
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”).[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /miːn/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -iːn
- Homophones: mean, mesne
Noun
mien (countable and uncountable, plural miens)
- (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.
- 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?”
- (countable) A specific facial expression.
Translations
demeanor; facial expression or attitude, especially one which is intended by its bearer
|
specific facial expression
|
References
Anagrams
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
