miracle
MEER-uh-kuhl · noun
Origin
From Middle English miracle, borrowed from Old French miracle, from Latin mīrāculum ("object of wonder"), from mīror ("to wonder at"), from mīrus ("wonderful"), tracing back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)meyh₂- ("to smile, to be astonished").
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Journey
It came into English already carrying its sense of a wonder-inducing thing, and once in English it pushed aside much of the native word wundor, which had meant the same thing.
Related words
It's a doublet of milagro and miraculum — different paths from the same Latin root, mīrāculum.
More words
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