Mir
/mɪər/noun
A Russian village commune or peasant community, especially before the Russian Revolution; also the name of the Soviet space station.
Did you know?The Soviet space station Mir was named from the Russian мир, a word whose meanings include both “peace” and “world,” giving the station an unusually symbolic name.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Slavic, before 1000 CE
Proto-Slavic
*mirъ
“Peace, harmony, or an ordered community”
10th–11th Century
Old Church Slavonic
миръ (mirŭ)
“Peace; the world; a community or society”
11th–15th Century
Old Russian
миръ (mir)
“Peace, the inhabited world, or a rural community”
18th–19th Century
Russian
мир (mir)
“A peasant commune, as well as peace or the world”
19th Century
English
mir
“A Russian village commune, adopted as a loanword”
1986–2001
English proper noun
Mir
“The Soviet and Russian space station named after the Russian word for peace or world”