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A Flower
A Plant Virus
A Dinosaur
A Phrase
From the Root Word
A Horse
A Name
A Fish
A Parasite
A Bacteria
Part Of A Pipe Organ
A Great Pool
A Great Philosopher
A Curve & Spiral
Mirabilis = wonderful, marvelous, astonishing, extraordinary (Latin Grammar Aid and Wordlist)
Hail the first Mirabilis on the web!
A Flower
Mirabilis is a name of a hallucinogen plant.
One of the specie is the "Marvel of Peru" or the "Four-o'clock". It was introduced to Europe in the 16th century and has been a favorite ever since.
It's a fragrant flower and grows in the sun.
Careful! It's poisonous.
Peggi Ridgway wrote: "Many people living in eastern Oklahoma grow Mirabilis in their yards. Of
course, the plant is called Four O'clock there. It grows into a nice, busy
green plant with beautiful red flowers that only bloom around 4 o'clock
every afternoon, as the light and heat of the summer sun is fading. The
flowers stay plumped into the twilight hour. The "Four O'clocks," as they
are commonly called, make a nice hedge-like border around a house or yard."
Two species are considered Endangered and Threatened Plants in the United States: the
MIRABILIS Albida or by its popular name "Pale Umbrella-Wort", and MIRABILIS Linearis - "Narrowleaf Umbrella-Wort".
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Endangered Species sent us this report about
Chamaecrista glandulosa var. mirabilis (=Cassia mirabilis).
Barnie van der Walt sent us this: "In Namibia we have a plant that grows only in the desert like areas.
It is very rare and it is the only place in the world you get it. Some of the plant were "born" when Jesus Christ was born - about 2000 years ago.
Its name is "Welwitchia Mirabilis"".
John Squatter adds from Encyclopaedia Britannica: "
A family of southwestern African desert plants in the order Gnetales, named for its single genus,
Welwitschia. Tumboa plants ( W. MIRABILIS or W. bainesii), constituting the only species, have deep
taproots and resemble giant radishes".
See a Welwitschia mirabilis here
The Herbst Family told us that it's also a type of plant virus: Mirabilis mosaic caulimovirus.
The Dinosaur
The Herbst Family also wrote us that Sharovipteryx mirabilis was a specie of Dinosaur but there isn't much information there.
Karlis Loen looked up our dinosaur and send us the following information: Sharovipteryx Cowen.
- Meaning: "Sharov's wings"
- Species: S. mirabilis (Sharov, 1971) [type] - originally Podopteryx
- Time: LTr (Late Triassic: 220-205 million years ago)
- Place: Kirghizia
- Remains: skeleton with membrane impression
This animal possessed a uropatagium, a flap of skin stretching between its long legs and its tail. It seems similar to
Scleromochlus. (From: http://home.sol.no/~enrique/a-z.htm)
If you know more please tell us
(NOTE: Please read before sending).
A Phrase
Mirabilis - "If my recollection of high school Latin (yes... Back in the Dark
Ages) is correct we would have translated "mirabilis" as "miraculous" and there is something ... a
piece of music, perhaps Gregorian Chant, or a Litany or a part of the
Liturgy in the Latin Mass... running around in my head. Can't put my
finger on it and it's driving me bonkers.
And., BTW, the correct Latin pronunciation, in case you were
wondering, is: mee RAH bi leese."
- Nancy
"Mirabilis dictu" - Wonderfully said! - Tom.
Mirabilis = Miraculous. "Annus Mirabilis -- the miraculous year. Aldous Huxley used the above phrase
to immortalize the awesome individuals who were born in the year 1809, and whose lives so influenced history.
Two more years were called Annus Mirabilis: 1905 when Albert Einstein revolutionized the way three physics outstanding problems
were perceived: the apparent absence of ether drift, Brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect.
The other was 1666 Newton's Plague-Year.
John Squatter looked this up in Encyclopaedia Britannica: "ANNUS MIRABILIS marked the end of the Cold war in 1989, with the
democratization of the Soviet 'satellite' states (eg Bulgaria, Rumania, Poland.)".
Russ Smith wrote: "According to ancient scriptures, well, latin really, the people of Pompeii just before they got covered with molten lava, said:
'Ecce! Nubrilem Mirabilis!'
Roughly translated means:
'Look! A strange Cloud!'
And as Ecce is look, and Nubrilem is cloud, Mirabilis must therefore mean
Strange or Extra-usual".
From the Root Word
Not exactly Mirabilis, but from the same root word.
- Allison Grayson sent us this from the Oxford English Dictionary:
"As an English word, it is an obsolete short form of "Aqua Mirabilis,"
'The wonderful water, prepared of cloves, galangals, mace, cardamums [cardamoms], nutmegs, ginger, and spirit of wine, digested twenty-four hours, then distilled.'
Mirabilist - One who works wonders.
Mirabilite - 'wonderful salt,' the name given by Glauber to sulphate of soda ('Glauber's salt'): Native sulphate of soda.
Mirability - Admirable quality.
Mirable - Wonderful, marvelous. Something wonderful; a wonder. The English form of the Latin.
Mirabundous - Wonderful."
- Vajirune C.: "I can imagine that the word Mirabilis is also a new coined word.
It stands for Miracle + Abilities."
- Moshe Cohen: "The origins or the word MIRABILIS are the Latin roots: MIRARI = to
wonder and MIRARE=to behold. Hence the words mirror and miracle."
- Harry Bush sent us this: "mirabillary n. a wonder-worker. mirific. mirificent, adj.
(source of info: Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary (of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words)
published by Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ - 1974)"
- F D. Datuin wrote to us: "I am from the philippines originally and the word mirabilis can mean:
mira - spanish word for look
bilis - tagalog word for fast
so there you go "look fast". I guess you're looking ahead fast in the future. congrats!"
A Horse
Annus Mirabilis is the name of a race horse with an impressive record.
A Name
Since the introduction of ICQ few babies, dogs and cats have been named "Mirabilis".
If you know anyone by that name or have a pet bearing it, send us a url or a picture.
(NOTE: Please read before sending)
A Fish
Suckermouth Minnow (Phenacobius mirabilis)
Its taxonomy
And here's some information about it.
Another type of fish is the Gillichthys mirabilis, otherwise known as the Longjaw Mudsucker.
See here the wonderful Aphyosemion mirabilis.
A Parasite
From Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Another trematode, Cercaria MIRABILIS, is notable for
its unusually large larvae form, called a cercaria. The size of this cercaria and its hopping mode
of locomotion cause it to resemble a small, swimming crustacean or mosquito larva, with the result that fish
mistake it for food and swallow it. Research on parasites of this kind is much easier when it is
recognized that the larval stages often mimic the food of their respective hosts. Examination of the
parasite often provides a suggestion as to the probable host" (Thank you John Squatter).
A Bacteria
Mirabilis is also a name of a bacteria
that can cause lower respiratory tract and urinary tract infections
Click here to see a Mirabilis
Part Of A Musical Pipe Organ
Tuba Mirabilis (the great tube) is part of the wind system in the organ.
A Great Pool - Piscina Mirabilis
Piscina Mirabilis is a great cistern in the aquaduct, the water system of Serino. It is the greatest cistern ever to be found from the Roman era.
It could contain 12000 cubic meters of water. Here is some more information about this great pool
A Great Philosopher
MIRABILIS Bacon, Roger, (Mirabilis) byname DOCTOR MIRABILIS (Latin: "Wonderful Teacher") (b. c. 1220, Ilchester, Somerset, or Bisley,
Gloucester?, Eng.--d. 1292, Oxford?), English Franciscan philosopher
and educational reformer who was a major medieval proponent of
experimental science. Bacon studied mathematics, astronomy, optics,
alchemy, and languages. He was the first European to describe in
detail the process of making gunpowder, and he proposed flying
machines and motorized ships and carriages. - sent by John Fahlsing.
A Curve
Mirabilis is also a curve called an Equiangular Spiral.
The equiangular spiral was invented by Descartes in 1638. Torricelli worked
on it independently and found the length of the curve.
If P is any point on the spiral then the length of the spiral from P to the
origin is finite. In fact, from the point P which is at distance d from the
origin measured along a radius vector, the distance from P to the pole is d
sec a. Jacob Bernoulli in 1692 called it 'spira mirabilis' and it is carved
on his tomb in Basel.
See also: Spira Mirabilis - Wonderful Spiral
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