Mars

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin Mārs (“the god of war, warfare, the planet Mars”), with the stem Mārt-.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The name occurs in Old English, in Ælfric,^[2] and Middle English has it as Mars, also spelled marce and marche.^[6] The Latin name is of unknown origin.^[2][7][8] The OED and the Shorter Oxford derive it, by contraction, from Māvors,^[2][5] through a form Maurs found on an inscription,^[2] and Etymonline, following Watkins, starts from Proto-Italic *Mawort-, the name of an Italic deity who became the god of war at Rome.^[7] De Vaan rejects the old view that this is the oldest form: the “Lapis Satricanus”, with the dative mamartei, shows that mamart- is older, and he traces a development within Latin from *māmart- through *māu̯o/ert- to the classical stem.^[9] Oscan Māmers agrees with that form.^[2][7][9] The OED sees the same reduplication in Marmar in the Carmen Arvale,^[2] a form de Vaan does not trust.^[9] Klein rejects a link with Ancient Greek μάρναμαι (márnamai, “I fight”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman god of war: in Old English, in Ælfric's homily De Falsis Diis,^[2] though Etymonline finds this use only in the late 14th century.^[7] The planet follows about 1300, in a legend of Saint Michael, which Etymonline takes as the first record of the word.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the god's name already served for warfare and for the planet,^[2] and Etymonline explains the planet's name by its blood-like colour.^[7] The god was identified early on with the Greek Ares,^[2][7] and ranked next to Jupiter.^[2] Chaucer has the name 61 times and Gower 15, for the god and the planet.^[10] In alchemy the metal iron was called Mars from about 1395, in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale, through the association of iron with weapons of war, as it had been in the Latin of British sources from about 1215.^[2][7] Golding's Ovid (1565) used the name allusively for a great warrior, a use lasting to 1830.^[2] In heraldry it stood from 1572 to 1622 for the tincture gules in the arms of sovereign princes,^[2] and in palmistry the hill of Mars, the fleshy base of the thumb, is recorded from 1578.^[2]

Timeline

• Old English – the Roman god of war, in Ælfric.^[2]
• c. 1300 – the planet.^[2][7]
• c. 1395 – in alchemy, the metal iron.^[2][7]
• 1565 – allusively, a great warrior (obsolete by 1830).^[2]
• 1572 – in heraldry, the tincture gules (obsolete by 1622).^[2]
• 1578 – hill of Mars, in palmistry.^[2]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. The Roman god of war, father of Romulus and Remus, identified with the Greek Ares.^[11][3][2]
2. The fourth planet from the sun, reddish in colour, with an orbit between those of Earth and Jupiter; also called the Red Planet.^[11][3][2]
3. (obsolete) In alchemy, the metal iron.^[3][6][2]

Word family

• martial
• Martian

Related words

• March
• Martin
• Mavors

Usage notes

The Mars bar, a chocolate-covered confectionery bar, has a separate source: it takes its name from the American firm Mars Confections, later Mars, Inc., which bears the name of its founders.^[2] The OED records the trade mark in 1932 and says that Forrest Mars first made the bar at Slough in 1933,^[2] while Etymonline dates its manufacture to 1932.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins