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mir·in

(mĭrĭn)

A sweet Japanese rice wine used especially in cooking.

[Japanese, mi, flavor (from Early Middle Chinese muj^h; also the source of Mandarin wèi) + rin, variant reading of the kanji for ran, to remove the astringency of persimmons by soaking in rice wine (from Middle Chinese lam´) due to misreading as rin, to strain, filter (from Middle Chinese lim`) because of the two terms' similarity in meaning and the resemblance of their kanji .]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

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Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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