An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Meile

by Friedrich Kluge

Meile, feminine (rare in Suabian and Bavarian), ‘mile’ (about five English miles), from the equivalent Middle High German mîle, Old High German mîla, mîlla (for mîlja), feminine; corresponding to Dutch mijl, Anglo-Saxon mîl, English mile, Scandinavian míla, feminine, ‘mile’; from Latin mîlia (passuum), ‘thousand paces,’ whence also Italian miglia, French mille. It properly denotes ‘a measure of a thousand paces (singular mille passuum).’ The more frequent plural mîlia was adopted in Romance and German, chiefly as a feminine singular, without the addition of passuum (Italian formed the singular miglio, ‘mile,’ from the plural miglia). The word was borrowed in the first century contemporaneously with Straße (Italian lega, French lieue, ‘league,’ a later word of Keltic origin, was never adopted in German).