mile的词源

英文词源

mile

mile: [OE] Latin mille denoted ‘thousand’ (it is the source of English millennium [17], etymologically a ‘thousand years’, and, via Italian and French, of million [14]). Its plural mīllia was used in ancient Rome for a measure of length equal to a thousand paces. This was borrowed into prehistoric West Germanic as *mīlja, which has subsequently differentiated into German meile, Dutch mijl, and English mile. (The English mile is over 100 yards longer than the Roman one was.)
=> millennium, million

mile (n.)

Old English mil, from West Germanic *milja (cognates: Middle Dutch mile, Dutch mijl, Old High German mila, German meile), from Latin milia "thousands," plural of mille "a thousand" (neuter plural was mistaken in Germanic as a fem. singular), of unknown origin.

The Latin word also is the source of French mille, Italian miglio, Spanish milla. The Scandinavian words (Old Norse mila, etc.) are from English. An ancient Roman mile was 1,000 double paces (one step with each foot), for about 4,860 feet, but there were many local variants and a modern statute mile is about 400 feet longer. In Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, the Latin word was applied arbitrarily to the ancient Germanic rasta, a measure of from 3.25 to 6 English miles. Mile-a-minute (adj.) "very fast" is attested from 1957.

中文词源

mile（英里）：一千罗马步的距离

古代罗马人以“罗马步”（passus）作为测量距离的单位，一罗马步等于两个右脚（或左脚）脚印之间的距离，也就是两步的距离。那么，一千罗马步在拉丁文中就写作mille passus，其中的mille就是“千”的含义，英语词根mill-（千）正是来源于此。英语中表示“英里”的单词mile也源自这个拉丁语，一mile其实就是“一千罗马步”的距离。

随着罗马的征服，越来越多的地方采用mile作为距离单位。但由于各地人高矮不一，步幅有长有短，所以各地的mile的精确距离并不相等，令人困惑。直到1592年，英国女王伊丽莎白一世颁布法令，规定一mile等于1760码（yard），即大约1.6公里，这就是我们今天所说的“法定英里”（statute mile）。

mile：[maɪl] n.英里

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：mile 词源，mile 含义。

mile：英里

来自拉丁语milia,一千，词源同million,millimeter.后引申词义英里，即一千整步，两千小步。

mile：英里 

来源于拉丁语名词mille(一千)的复数millia。

milli-千 → mile

同源词：million, millennium