miraculum

English

Etymology

From Latin mīrāculum. Doublet of milagro and miracle.

Noun

miraculum

1. (rare, nonstandard) A miracle.
   • 1857 October, J. A. Nash, M. P. Parish, “Speculations on the Origin of Plants. By David Rice, M.D.”, in The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. […], volume X, number 4, New York, N.Y.: J. A. Nash & M. P. Parish, footnote by editors, page 206:

     What is a miracle? A miracle—miraculum, wonder, something that astonishes—is simply a thing out of the common course, and is no more an exhibition of power than the ordinary operations of nature. […] If a sick man, almost too feeble to move a limb, should all at once rise from his bed, bid his doctor and nurse farewell, and go to work in his field, that would be a miracle, a miraculum, a most astonishing occurrence.

   • 1869, Benjamin Place [pseudonym; Edward Thring], chapter VI, in Thoughts on Life-Science, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 73–74:

     [W]hat is there wonderful in these ever-present spirit-agencies and intelligent wills, whilst working under God every material force, changing at any moment whether perceptibly or imperceptibly the direction of the material forces they wield; what miraculum would there be if every drop of rain is guided or shot through air by a living power?

   • 1881, Warren J[udson] Brier, A Soldier of Fortune: A Modern Comedy-Drama in Five Acts. […] (The Star Drama), Chicago, Ill.: T[homas] S[tewart] Denison, →OCLC, act III, scene i, page 30:

     It’s a miraculum she warn’t tored all into little pieces no bigger dan a wash tub.

   • 2001 October, Bronwyn Cleland, “Deux Ex Machina”, in Room 14 at 8 O’Clock: An Anthology of Poetry & Short Stories (The Richmond Writers’ Circle Anthology 2001), Richmond, London: Richmond Writers’ Circle, →ISBN, page 40:

     She had no time for the virtues of patience and we would hear the familiar sigh pitched to perfection and ‘All we need, all we want is a miraculum, just one small one.’ As the convoluted talk of illusory deities and miracles spiralled, we elder children sometimes deviated from my mother’s doctrine by demanding a straight answer as to how she saw her miracle manifesting.

   • 2020, Stanisław Rosik, “The space of the turning point in the context of its neighbours: Pomeranian communities within the circle of the pagan ‘international’”, in Stanisław Rosik, editor, Europe Reaches the Baltic: Poland and Pomerania in the Shaping of European Civilization (10^th–12^th Centuries) (Scripta Historica Europaea; 6), Wrocław: University of Wrocław, →ISBN, section 3 (Pomerania – Poland – Europe. In search of their own paths), subsection II (Pomerania in the zone of Polish expansion in the age of Bolesław III the Wrymouth. Conquest and Christianization), page 330:

     This theological interpretation is meaningfully illustrated with a miraculum, which according to Ebo (III, 1) happened in Güzkow. An enormous swarm of terrifying flies flew out of a pagan temple destroyed during Otto’s missions, embodying the residing evil forces. Chased away with prayers and signs of cross they ultimately flew to Rugia.

Latin

Etymology

From mīror (“I wonder or marvel at”) +‎ -culum (derivative suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /miːˈraː.ku.lum/, [miːˈräːkʊɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /miˈra.ku.lum/, [miˈräːkulum]

Noun

mīrāculum n (genitive mīrāculī); second declension

1. wonder, marvel, miracle; a wonderful, strange or marvellous thing.

   Synonyms: portentum, mōnstrum, ostentum, prōdigium, mīrum

2. wonderfulness, marvellousness.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	mīrāculum	mīrācula
genitive	mīrāculī	mīrāculōrum
dative	mīrāculō	mīrāculīs
accusative	mīrāculum	mīrācula
ablative	mīrāculō	mīrāculīs
vocative	mīrāculum	mīrācula

Derived terms

• mīrāculārius
• mīrāculātor
• mīrāculō

Related terms

• mīrābiliārius
• mīrābilis
• mīrābilitās
• mīrābiliter
• mīrābundus
• mīrācula
• mīrandus
• mīrātiō
• mīrātor
• mīrātrīx
• mīrē
• mīrificē
• mīrificentia
• mīrificō
• mīrificus
• mīrimodīs
• mīriō
• mīrō
• mīror
• mīrus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: mirachi, mirache
  • Romanian: mirac
• Ibero-Romance: (some or all semi-learned)
  • Asturian: milagru
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: miragre
    • Galician: milagre
    • Portuguese: milagre
  • Old Spanish: milagro, miraglo
    • Spanish: milagro
      • → Chavacano: milagro
      • → English: milagro
      • → Karao: milagro
• Ancient borrowings:
  • → Albanian: mrekulli
• Learned borrowings:
  • → Catalan: miracle
  • → Friulian: meracul
  • → Italian: miracolo
    • → Romanian: miracol
  • → Neapolitan: miraculo
  • → Occitan: miracle
  • → Old French: miracle
    • French: miracle
      • → Esperanto: miraklo
    • → Danish: mirakel
    • → English: miracle
    • → Middle Dutch: mirakele
      • Dutch: mirakel
  • → Portuguese: miráculo
  • → Sicilian: miràculu
  • → Spanish: miráculo

References

• “miraculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “miraculum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• miraculum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.