mic

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mic"

Translingual

Etymology

From English Micmac, now usually spelled Mi'kmaq.

Symbol

mic

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Mi'kmaq.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Mi'kmaq terms

English

Etymology 1

Clipping of microphone. Attested since 1961.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaɪk/
• Rhymes: -aɪk

Noun

mic (plural mics)

1. Alternative form of mike (“microphone”).
   • 1987, Eric B. & Rakim, I Know You Got Soul:

     Picture a mic, the stage is empty
     A beat like this might tempt me
     To pose, show my rings and my fat gold chain
     Grab the mic like I'm on Soul Train

Verb

mic (third-person singular simple present mics or mic's, present participle micing or mic'ing, simple past and past participle miced or mic'd or mic'ed)

1. Alternative form of mike.

   If we add the drum kit, we'll have to mic the orchestra.

   • 2002, Darren Brown with Jackie Bushman, Hunting Trophy Whitetails, page 167:

     At 11:00 am, Doug mics up with me on the radio, and I advise him to go back to camp to get a quad, that we have a monster down.

   • 2003, Sleazegrinder, Gigs from Hell: True Tales of Rock and Roll Gone Wrong, page 104:

     Imagine playing a venue the size of an aircraft hangar without your tiny amps miced up through the PA!

   • 2006, Sarah Davis with Dave Laing, The guerilla^[sic] guide to the music business, page 164:

     This lacks the gut-punch of miced-up bass but hopefully the player can rise to the challenge and give his or her take extra energy to make up for it.

   • 2007, Trev Wilkins, Access all areas: a real world guide to gigging and touring, page 101:

     Dynamics are used extensively for vocals, drums, and 'micing up' amplifiers such as guitar amps but they can be used for almost any application.

   • 2009, Francis Rumsey with Tim McCormick, Sound and Recording, page 51:

     but it is extremely useful in applications such as vocals, drums, and the micing-up of guitar amplifiers.

Derived terms

• eat the mic
• mic fright
• mic up

Etymology 2

Clipping of microfarad.

Noun

mic (plural mics)

1. (physics) A microfarad.

References

• “On Language: How Should ‘Microphone’ be Abbreviated?”, in New York Times, 29 July 2010

Anagrams

• CIM, CMI, ICM, IMC, MCI