Etymologically
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März

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Pronunciation

  • /mɛrts/, [mɛʁts], [mɛɐ̯ts][1]

Forms

März m (genitive (predominant) März or (less common) Märzes, plural Märze)[1] The noun was originally weak; the weak forms survive in compounds such as Märzenbier and in songs (Im Märzen der Bauer …).[2][3] The spelling with ä, after the Latin form, became established only in the 18th century, replacing Merz.[4][2] Adelung notes that des Märzen and im Märzen were heard in some regions.[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German merze, inherited from Old High German merzo, borrowed from Latin Mārtius (“(month) of Mars”), the month dedicated to the war god Mārs, which was the first month of the Roman year.[6][4][2] Old High German also has marceo, in the Abrogans, which keeps the unumlauted vowel and the Latin ⟨iu⟩; the other records already show the umlaut and the loss of the /j/.[2] The word appears in Middle Low German merte and Middle Dutch maerte, and the same Latin name gave Dutch maart, English March, French mars and Swedish mars.[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German marceo and merzo are recorded from the end of the 8th century, in the Abrogans and other glosses, translating Latin Martius.[7][2] A gloss explains Martius as merze uel lenzimanot, giving beside the Latin name the native Lenzmonat “spring month”.[8]

Semantic evolution

Charlemagne named the month Lenzmonat, and Adelung notes around 1800 that this name was still occasionally used, though it had not displaced the Roman one.[5][8] In the 18th century the Latin Martius was still used beside the German name.[9] Märzenbier, Middle High German merzbier, is beer brewed in March.[3][10]

The March of 1848 became the name of the German revolution of that year, hence Märzrevolution; Vormärz, first a general term for the time before it, came to name a literary period from the end of the 19th century.[3] The German name was borrowed into Estonian as märts and into Luxembourgish and Hebrew.[1]

Timeline

  • End of the 8th century – Old High German marceo and merzo appear in glosses.[7][2]
  • 18th century – The spelling März replaces Merz.[4][2]
  • 1848 – The month gives its name to the March revolution.[3]
  • 1863 – Daniel Sanders uses Vor-März as a term for the period before 1848.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. March, the third month of the year.[11][1]

Word family

  • Märzenbier
  • Vormärz
  • Latin Mārtius
  • English March

Usage notes

The verb ausmerzen “to weed out”, originally used of sheep unfit for breeding, has been connected with März, since flocks were culled in spring;[12][4][13] Kluge and the Duden consider that this connection may be secondary, and Pfeifer prefers other explanations.[12][4][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 358
  3. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  4. ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 89
  6. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 604
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de
  9. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1690
  10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities
  11. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 76
  13. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 118