Etymologically
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marital

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmæɹɪtəl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French marital,[2][3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin marītālis (“conjugal; of a husband”),[2][3][4][6] from marītus (“married; husband”) and the suffix -ālis.[2][7][8] The French word is recorded from 1531.[2] The Latin noun is of uncertain origin;[3][9] Klein suggests it meant "provided with a young wife", comparing Lithuanian marti (“bride”), Welsh merch (“daughter; wife”) and Ancient Greek μεῖραξ (meîrax, “boy, girl”),[9] while Skeat and Collins relate it to mās (“male”).[5][10] The same Latin noun underlies marry.[3][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of marriage, or the relations between husband and wife: 1603, in Florio's translation of Montaigne.[2][4] Barnhart notes an isolated example in Middle English before 1500, with a French plural in -s,[4] and the Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 15th century.[11]

Semantic evolution

Early use leaned towards the husband: the OED records "of or characteristic of a husband" from 1616 to 1872,[2] and Johnson (1755) defined the word only as "pertaining to a husband".[12] Etymonline describes the early sense as marriage as it concerns the husband, which then widened to anything relating to marriage.[3] That broader sense is now the usual one, as in marital status;[10][7] Collins and Merriam-Webster still list the husband sense.[10][7]

Timeline

  • before 1500 – an isolated Middle English example.[4]
  • 1603 – of marriage.[2][4]
  • 1616 – of a husband (obsolete by 1872 in the OED).[2]
  • 1755 – Johnson: "pertaining to a husband".[12]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to marriage or to married life; conjugal: marital problems.[10][7][2]
  2. Of or relating to a husband.[10][7][2]

Word family

  • maritally
  • premarital
  • extramarital
  • nonmarital
  • postmarital

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists marital with martial and marshal as words that are easily confused.[13]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House