Etymologically
Log in

marrow

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 08:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

English has two words spelled marrow: the soft tissue inside bones, from Old English, and a northern and Scots word for a mate or one of a pair, of uncertain origin.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmæɹəʊ/[4]

marrow1 soft tissue inside bones

Etymology

The tissue inside bones is inherited from Middle English marwe, also mergh and marowe,[5][6][1] inherited from Old English mearg, also mearh, merg in Anglian and early mærh,[6][7][3][8] from Proto-Germanic *mazgą.[9][10][6] It is cognate with Old Frisian merg, Old Saxon marg, Dutch merg, Old High German marg, German Mark and Old Norse mergr.[2][9][8][10] Kroonen calls it an ancient Indo-European word for "marrow" or "brain",[9] and the outside cognates include Sanskrit मज्जन् (majján, “marrow”), Avestan mazga- (“marrow”), Tocharian A mäśśunt (“marrow”), Old Prussian musgeno (“marrow”) and Russian мозг (mozg, “brain; marrow”).[2][6][11][8] Etymonline reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *mozgo- (“marrow”),[10] Barnhart *mosgh-;[6] in Germanic the -r- replaced an older -z-, from Indo-European -s-.[6] The OED notes that Old English glossaries also use the same form for a kind of sausage, which modern studies take as a separate word from a different Indo-European base.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The soft fatty substance inside bones, also as food: Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 700 (mærh) and before 800 (merg),[6] and the OED's first quotation is from the early Old English Corpus Glossary.[2] Already in Old English it also meant the pith of a plant.[2]

Semantic evolution

From the core of a bone the word moved to the innermost or vital part of anything: the essence of something from about 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible,[2][10] the central part of a thing from about 1425,[2] and the seat of a person's strength and vitality from before 1450.[2] In Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus (before 1398) it also named the spinal cord and the substance of the brain.[2] Phrases like to the marrow use the bones as the seat of feeling, from 1520.[2][12] In the 17th century marrow was common in book titles for a digest of a subject.[2] In slang it could mean semen, from 1598.[13] The vegetable sense is English of the early 19th century:[14][7] a paper on a new kind of gourd called the "vegetable marrow" was read to the Horticultural Society in 1816,[15] and in British use marrow alone now names this gourd.[16][14]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English mærh, marrow.[6]
  • early Old English – the pith of a plant.[2]
  • c. 1340 – Middle English mergh.[6]
  • 1382 – the essence or vital part of something, in the Wycliffite Bible.[2][10]
  • before 1398 – the spinal cord.[2]
  • c. 1425 – the innermost part of something.[2]
  • 1520 – of the bones as the seat of feeling, cold or fear.[2]
  • 1816 – the vegetable marrow, a gourd.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The soft fatty tissue inside the cavities of bones, where blood cells are made; bone marrow.[16][1][14]
  2. The vital or essential part of something; the essence or core: the marrow of the argument.[16][14][2]
  3. Strength, vitality.[16][2]
  4. (British) A long gourd with white flesh and green skin, eaten as a vegetable; a vegetable marrow, or the plant that bears it.[16][14][12]
  5. to the marrow: to one's innermost being, thoroughly: soaked to the marrow.[12][2]
  6. (obsolete) The pith of a plant.[2][17]

Word family

  • marrowy
  • marrowish
  • marrowless
  • marrowfat
  • marrowbone
  • bone marrow
  • marrow squash

marrow2 mate, companion; one of a pair

Etymology

The word for a mate or partner is inherited from Middle English marwe, also maroo and margh,[5][1] probably borrowed from Old Norse margr (“many; friendly, communicative”),[3][14][2][5] which is related to many.[2] The OED and Dictionary.com call this only a possibility,[2][18] and Chambers calls the word of unknown origin.[17] The OED finds the word earlier in Middle English surnames, such as John Marwe (about 1208) and Geoffrey le Marewe (1276), and thinks a derivation from Old English mearu less likely.[2] The verb marrow is attested slightly earlier than the noun, but the OED and the Shorter Oxford take it as formed from the noun.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A companion or fellow worker: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses it with Latin words for companion and partner.[2][5][19] The verb, to join or pair, is recorded from about 1400.[2]

Semantic evolution

From a companion the word moved to a husband or wife, or a lover (1554), and to one of a pair, a counterpart (1516); from about 1550 it meant a person's equal, one's match in a contest.[2][3] The verb followed the same path: to be a partner, to marry, and, since 1567, to equal or rival.[2][3][1] Tusser and Drayton used it for a companion.[19] Johnson (1755) noted that in Scots it still meant a fellow, companion or associate.[20] Wright found it in general dialect use in Scotland, Ireland and the northern counties of England down to Cheshire and Derbyshire, often spelled marra or marrer, with the senses of an equal or match and an exact likeness.[21] Merriam-Webster marks it as chiefly Scottish.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1400 – verb, to join, to pair.[2]
  • 1440 – a companion, a fellow worker.[2][5]
  • 1516 – one of a pair, a counterpart.[2]
  • 1554 – a husband or wife; a lover (now obsolete).[2]
  • c. 1550 – a person's equal or match.[2]
  • 1567 – verb, to equal, to rival.[2]
  • 1585 – adjective, matching, equal.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly Scottish and northern English) A companion, partner or fellow worker; a mate.[1][3][2][21]
  2. (chiefly Scottish) One of a pair; a match or equal: These two gloves are not marrows.[1][2][21]
  3. (chiefly Scottish, archaic) A husband or wife, or a lover.[1][2]

Verb

  1. (dialect) To match or equal.[1][2][3]
  2. (dialect) To marry, or to be a partner to someone.[1][3][2]

Word family

  • half-marrow
  • many

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e 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)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  9. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c d e f Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
  18. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  19. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W.; Mayhew, A. L. (1914), A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  21. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)