mar

Forms

mar m or f (plural mars)^[1] The DCVB records [máɾ], [má], and in some dialects [máɾt] and [máɾk].^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan mar, which is inherited from Latin mare (“sea”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan mar, Spanish mar, Portuguese mar, French mer, Italian mare and Romanian mare.^[6][1] The Latin noun was neuter; it became feminine in Romanian and French, masculine in Italian and Sardinian, and both elsewhere.^[3][7] The REW explains the feminine by the influence of terra (“land”).^[6]

The Latin word comes from *mari, from *móri, which de Vaan glosses "sea, lake" and which may be limited to the European languages.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines dates the word to the origins of the language.^[3] In Llull's Doctrina pueril one sees with bodily eyes lo cel e les esteles, la mar e les terres, "the sky and the stars, the sea and the lands", and the chronicle of James I tells of a heavy sea that kept the king from crossing.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word was feminine in practically every author, Desclot, Eiximenis and Joanot Martorell among them; a Roussillon document of 1298 has dins la mar.^[3] The names of seas were feminine too: la Mar Major in Eiximenis, la Roja Mar in Roig.^[3] After the Renaissance, Latin and Italian influence spread the masculine, above all in learned and geographical use; the Barcelona parish was still Santa Maria de la Mar in 1641.^[3] Fishermen and sailors kept the feminine, and it is general in Roussillon.^[3]

Old senses include the state of the sea, as when Marsili writes in 1314 that la mar had begun to harm many, and alta mar, the open sea.^[9] The figurative sense of a great quantity is in Miquel Peres's mar de plors, "sea of tears".^[9] Derivatives such as marès (1390) and maror (1393) are medieval.^[4] Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 lists the word as of either gender, as Fabra does.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1240s–1270s – mar in the chronicle of James I.^[3][2]
• Late 13th century – Llull's Doctrina pueril.^[3]
• 1298 – the feminine dins la mar in a Roussillon document.^[3]
• 1314 – Marsili uses la mar of a rough sea.^[9]
• 1390 – the derivative marès.^[4]
• 1393 – the derivative maror.^[4]
• 1641 – the parish of Santa Maria de la Mar in Barcelona.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary gives the word as of either gender.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary, masculine and feminine.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine or feminine) The sea, the mass of salt water that covers much of the Earth: Van passar el dia vora el mar.^[12][5]
2. The sea as to the movement of its waters: mar brava, mar de fons.^[12][2]
3. A part of the sea in a given region: la mar Mediterrània.^[5][2]
4. A large lake.^[2]
5. (figurative) A great quantity;^[13] la mar de: a lot of, very: Estava la mar de content.^[13][2]
6. alta mar: the open sea.^[12]

Word family

• marejar
• marejada
• marí
• marina
• mariner
• maror
• marès
• maresme
• ultramar
• amarar

Related words

• marea
• Latin mare
• Spanish mar
• French mer

Usage notes

The feminine is used mostly in coastal areas; elsewhere the masculine is usual and the feminine is literary.^[14] Coromines finds the feminine predominant the more popular the speech.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 456
4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 571
5. ^ a b c Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. mar
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5349
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 837
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. mar
10. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. mar
11. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. mar
12. ^ a b c Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. mar
13. ^ a b Rodamots: cada dia, un mot (online), https://rodamots.cat, p. s.v. mar
14. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. mar