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mica [mica 词源字典]: mica: [18] Latin mīca meant ‘grain’, and its original use in English (perhaps influenced by the similar but unrelated Latin verb micāre ‘shine’) was to ‘small shiny particles or platelets’ in certain sorts of rock. The modern application to a group of related silicates, which contain such shiny plates, dates from the 1790s.
[mica etymology, mica origin, 英语词源]
micro: micro: [19] The conversion of the prefix microinto a noun (standing, for instance, for a microskirt or microcomputer) is not as recent as one might have supposed: as long ago as the 1860s it was being used for a sort of tiny moth (short for microlepidoptera). The prefix itself comes from Greek mīkrós ‘small’, a variant of smīkrós, which may be distantly related to English small.

The earliest English word containing it appears to have been microcosm [15], etymologically ‘little world’. From the 17th century come micrometer, microphone, and microscope. Microbe [19] means etymologically ‘little life’ (from Greek bíos ‘life’), hence ‘little creature’.
micturate: micturate: see ant
midden: midden: see muck
middle: middle: [OE] Middle traces its ancestry back to Indo-European *medhjo-, which also produced Latin medius ‘middle’ (source of English mediate, medium, etc) and Greek mésos ‘middle’ (source of the English prefix meso-). Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *mithja-, which has given English the adjective mid [OE] and the derived noun midst [14]. From *mithjawas formed in West Germanic the adjective *middila, which has given modern German mittel, Dutch middel, and English middle.
=> mediate, medium
midge: midge: see mosquito
midget: midget: see mosquito
midwife: midwife: [14] A midwife is etymologically a ‘with-woman’. The mid- element represents the long extinct preposition mid ‘with’ (its Germanic relatives are still alive and well: German mit, Dutch met, and Swedish and Danish med). Wife preserves the original meaning of Old English wīf, ‘woman’. The idea underlying the word is that a midwife is ‘with’ a woman giving birth.
might: might: [OE] Might goes back ultimately to Indo- European *mag- ‘be able, have power’, the same base as produced the auxiliary verb may. The noun might was formed with the Germanic suffix *-tiz, which also gave German and Dutch macht ‘power’; and the verb might, the past form of may, contains the past inflectional suffix (in modern English -(e)d).
=> may
migraine: migraine: [14] The earliest English forms of this word were mygrame and mygrane, but eventually it became institutionalized as megrim. Not until the 18th century did what is now the standard form, migraine, begin to appear on the scene, probably as a reborrowing of the word’s original source, French migraine. This came via late Latin hēmicrānia from Greek hēmikrāníā, literally ‘half-skull’ (krāníon is the source of English cranium [16], and is distantly related to English horn). The etymological idea underlying the word is of ‘pain in one side of the head’.
=> cranium, horn
migrate: migrate: see mutate
milch: milch: see milk
mild: mild: [OE] Mild goes back ultimately to Indo- European *meld-, *mold-, *mld-, which denoted ‘softness’ and also produced English melt and Latin mollis ‘soft’, source of English mollify and mollusc. From it was derived the Germanic adjective *milthjaz, whose modern descendant has shown remarkable formal stability: German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and English all share the word mild.
=> melt, mollify, mollusc, smelt
mildew: mildew: [OE] Mildew originally meant ‘honeydew’ (which is a sort of sticky substance exuded by aphids and similar insects on to leaves). It is a compound noun formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from *melith ‘honey’ (a relative of Latin mel ‘honey’, source of English mellifluous and molasses) and *daw-waz, ancestor of English dew. The metaphorical transference from ‘honey-dew’ to a less pleasant, fungal growth on plants, etc took place in the 14th century.
=> dew, mellifluous, molasses
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
military: military: [16] Military traces its history back to Latin mīles ‘soldier’, a word possibly of Etruscan origin. Its derived adjective mīlitāris entered English via French militaire. Also based on mīles was the verb mīlitāre ‘serve as a soldier’, which has given English militant [15] and militate [17], a verb whose meaning has changed sharply over the centuries: at first it was used in the same way as its Latin ancestor, but then it developed via ‘conflict with’ to ‘be evidence against’, and finally, in the 20th century, to ‘make unlikely’. Militia [16] comes from Latin militia ‘warfare’, another derivative of mīles.
milk: milk: [OE] Far back into prehistory, milk traces its ancestry to an Indo-European base *melg-, which denoted ‘wiping’ or ‘stroking’. The way of obtaining milk from animals is to pull one’s hand down their teats, and so *melg- came in due course to be used for ‘milk’. It passed into Germanic as *melk-, which formed the basis of the noun *meluks, and this over the centuries has become German milch, Dutch and Danish melk, Swedish mjölk, and English milk.

The now virtually obsolete adjective milch ‘giving milk’ [OE] (as in milch cow) goes back to a Germanic derivative of *meluks. Another derivative of Indo-European *melgwas the Latin verb mulgēre ‘milk’, which has given English emulsion and promulgate.
=> emulsion, promulgate
mill: mill: [OE] Mill is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to the Indo- European base *mel-, *mol-, *ml-, denoting ‘grind’. It includes meal ‘flour’, mollify, mollusc, mould ‘earth’, and (via the extended form *meld-, *mold-) melt and mild. One particular subset of the family comes from closely related Latin sources: the verb molere ‘grind’ has produced emolument and ormolu [18] (etymologically ‘ground gold’); the noun mola ‘grindstone’ has given molar [16] and (via a later sense ‘flour mixed with salt, sprinkled on sacrificial victims’) immolate [16]; and late Latin molīnus ‘grindstone’, which replaced classical Latin mola, was borrowed into Old English as mylen, from which we get modern English mill.
=> emolument, meal, melt, mild, molar, mollify, mollusc, mould, ormolu
millennium: millennium: see mile
milliner: milliner: [16] The Italian city of Milan was famous in medieval and Renaissance times for the fabrics, laces, etc that it manufactured; and a merchant who imported such ‘Milan ware’ became known as a Milaner. In due course the term became associated with ‘makers of female garments’, which would have incorporated such Italian haberdashery, and by the 19th century it had narrowed down specifically to ‘maker of women’s hats’.