Since 1992
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By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Mitten
One fun thing about words, is that their origins are often unclear so that even expert opinions differ. Hard to say which is correct. Mostly I go with the majority opinion or the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, but some theories are pretty creative or just plain fun. Take the humble mitten. A mitten is a piece of clothing worn on the hand that covers the four fingers together and thumb separately, in contrast to a glove, which covers each finger individually. Mittens keep hands warmer than gloves, as it allows the fingers to share their warmth. Small children often wear mittens because they’re easier to put on than gloves. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, memorably wore them at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. So memorable, in fact, the image became a meme, a word we may discuss another day.
The stuffier experts say the word mitten probably comes from Old English, sometime in the 12th-14th century, possibly relating to the West Germanic “mit” or “middel” in the sense of a glove divided in the middle or a half glove. This makes sense. A more interesting different explanation is the word comes from the Old French word mite, a pet name for a cat, because mittens were often made of fur. Many sources cite the cat connection although presumably mittens were not made of cat fur. It’s also left unexplained why the French think “mite,” the French word for moth, is a playful cat name. While Mittens is a popular cat name, usually cats are so called because the markings on their paws resemble mittens, not the other way around. Nameberry, the world’s largest website devoted to names, calls the name Mittens “both a boy’s name and a girl’s name …(that) actually has feline origins. It became linked with mittens because they were made of fur.” I’m not sure how much weight to give a source that lists Mittens as both a girl’s and boy’s baby name unless it’s referring to baby cats. Meriam-Webster is pro cats but etymology online positively states that the word mittens is from “medietana,” the Vulgar Latin for “divided in the middle.” Take your pick, but I think mittens from kittens is a much more interesting theory.
