mightとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• enPR: mīt, IPA: /maɪt/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: [maɪt]
  • (米国発音) IPA: [mɐɪt]
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA: [mɑjt]
  • (Canada) IPA: [məjt]
  • (Australia) IPA: [mɑɪt]
• Homophone: mite
• 韻: -aɪt

語源 1

From 中期英語 maught, might, miȝt, myght, from 古期英語 maht, meaht, meht, mieht, miht, mæht (“ability, power; strength; virtue”), from Proto-West Germanic *mahti, from Proto-Germanic *mahtiz (“ability, power; force, strength”), from Proto-Indo-European *(me)mógʰe (“to be able to, to have power”), from *megʰ- (“to be able”), corresponding to Germanic *maganą (“to be able, may”) + *-þiz. Equivalent to may +‎ -th.

別の表記

• mite (eye dialect, informal)
• mought (obsolete outside dialects)

名詞

might (countable and uncountable, plural mights)

1. (countable, uncountable) Power, strength, force, or influence held by a person or group.

   Synonyms: authority, potency; see also Thesaurus:power

   • 1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “The Introites, Collectes, Epiſtles and Goſpelles, to be uſed at the celebꝛacion of the loꝛdes Supper, & holy Communion, thꝛough the yere, with pꝛoper Pſalmes and Leſſons, for diuers feaſtes and dayes”, in The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC, folio xcvii, recto:

     […] ſtrengthed with all myght, thꝛough his gloꝛious power, unto all pacience and long ſufferyng with ioifulneſſe […]

   • 1965 March 15, Lyndon B. Johnson, 43:30 from the start, in Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise [on the Voting Rights Act], 3/15/65. MP506.‎, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum:

     This is the richest, the most powerful country which ever occupied this globe. The might of past empires is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the president who built empires or sought grandeur or extended dominion. I want to be the president who educated young children to the wonders of their world.

   • 1969, [unattributed], Journal of the United Service Institution of India‎, volume 99, page 115:

     Since every nation considers itself right, peace lies in balancing the military mights of the possible rivals.

   • 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 7:26 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎, archived from the original on 29 November 2024:

     The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act had abolished slavery completely in the British Empire, and this, along with the fact that the Empire's military and economic might was beginning to pull even further ahead of other nations', thanks in part to the Industrial Revolution, saw the squadron expand to around twenty-five ships (regularly having to be swapped out because of the high incidence of tropical disease) […]

2. (uncountable) Physical strength or force.

   Synonyms: brawn, fortitude, pith

   He pushed with all his might, but still it would not move.

3. (uncountable) The ability to do something.

派生語

形容詞

might (comparative mighter, superlative mightest)

1. (obsolete) Mighty; powerful.
2. (obsolete) Possible.

語源 2

From 古期英語 meahte and mihte, inflections of magan, whence English may.

別の表記

• med (dialect)

動詞

might (third-person singular simple present might, no present participle, simple past might, no past participle)

1. (auxiliary) simple past of may

   He asked me if he might go to the party, but I haven't decided yet.

   I thought that I might go the next day.

   In those days, a Briton might be hanged for stealing an egg

   [past typical occurrence].

   • 1922, James Frazer, chapter 60, in The Golden Bough‎:

     The king and queen of Tahiti might not touch the ground anywhere but within their hereditary domains; for the ground on which they trod became sacred.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   1. Used to indicate a desired past action that was not done.

      You might have warned me about the thunderstorm.

   • 2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 August 2019:

     With 14 minutes gone Héctor Moreno might have scored, glancing a header too close to Neuer from a free-kick.

2. (auxiliary) Used to indicate conditional or possible actions; would perhaps/maybe.

   Synonym: may

   Well, I might go to a party, but I haven't decided yet.

   • 1608, Joseph Hall, Characters of Virtues and Vices:

     The characterism of an honest man: He looks not to what he might do, but what he should.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

3. (auxiliary) Used concessively to admit something before making a more accurate or important statement; although

   Synonym: may

   I might be in a wheelchair, but I still want to be treated as a lady.

   • 2016, Candy Sloan, Wrong Bed Reunion:

     I might play football, but I do know how to read.

4. (auxiliary, often archaic) Used in polite requests for permission.

   "Might I take the last biscuit? I wonder if I might have a little more coffee too." "Yes you may, help yourself.".

   Synonyms: could, can, may

5. (auxiliary, UK, meiosis) Used to express certainty.

   Yeah, I think we might need something a bit sturdier.

使用する際の注意点

For many speakers, the use as the past tense of the auxiliary may, indicating permission, is obsolete: I told him he might not see her will only be interpreted as "I told him he would possibly not see her," and not as "I told him he was not allowed to see her." For the latter case, "could not" or "was/were not allowed to," "was/were forbidden to," etc., will be used instead.

Conjugation

• archaic second-person singular simple past - mightest
• nonstandard, archaic third-person singular simple past - mighteth

別の表記

• mought (obsolete outside US dialects)
• mout (US regional pronunciation spelling)

派生語

参考

• could
• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions

参照

• “might”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.