marchar

Forms

marchar (first-person singular present marcho, first-person singular preterite marché, past participle marchado)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French marcher, taken in the mid-16th century as a soldiers' word.^[2][3][4][1] The French verb first meant “to tread on, trample”, as Old French marchier about 1170, and the sense “to walk, march” appears clearly about 1400.^[2][5]

Corominas follows Tilander, who showed that the French verb comes from Frankish *markōn (“to leave a footprint”);^[5] Diez had suggested this and Spitzer had proposed it.^[2] Its relatives are Old High German markōn (“to mark, signify”), Old English mearc and Old Norse mark (“sign”).^[2][3] The DHLF connects it with the family of French marquer, French marche “border” and French marge.^[5] García de Diego lists the Spanish word under Proto-Germanic *marhan, after Meyer-Lübke, and records Gamillscheg's view that the French verb comes from Vulgar Latin *marcare (“to mark the footsteps”) instead.^[6]

Terlingen took the Spanish word from Italian, but Corominas doubts this: in Italy Varchi still called it a new military verb in the 1530s, and Pedro de Salazar, the first to use it in Spanish, wrote about the war in Germany and more probably learnt it from French speakers.^[2] Catalan marxar appears in 1535.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1550 the letter of the “Bachiller de Arcadia” reproached Pedro de Salazar for using this word, which it called Italianising, in his recent history of the war in Germany.^[2] Cabrera says that Diego Hurtado de Mendoza wrote that letter.^[8] A record of 1550 from Panama has troops who empezaron a marchar hazia esta çibdad “began to march towards this city”.^[9] In 1568 Eugenio de Salazar counts it as part of the lengua soldadesca, the soldiers' language.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Sigüenza about 1600 still treated it as a military word, and so did Covarrubias in 1611 and the Diccionario de Autoridades in 1734.^[2][10][11] In the 18th and above all the 19th century it left the military sphere, partly under new French influence: Baralt condemned marchar bien of a poem or a speech and esto marcha for “this is progressing”.^[2][12] The Academy took in the senses for a machine in motion and for an affair that goes well in 1869.^[13]

Today marcharse is the general word for “to leave”: Corominas, following Casares, explains that it replaced irse because that verb had taken on an indecent sense.^[2]

In Cuba, Chile and Puerto Rico marchar is said of a horse moving at the gait called marcha.^[14][15] In Argentina it is said of a dish being prepared.^[16][17] In the Dominican Republic it means to approach someone with a proposal, to charge at someone, or to court a woman.^[18][19] In colloquial Uruguayan Spanish it can mean to be beaten, to put up with a situation, or to die.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – the letter of the Bachiller de Arcadia criticises the word.^[2][3]
• 1550 – first record from the Americas, in Panama.^[9]
• 1568 – Eugenio de Salazar calls it a soldiers' word.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a military term for travelling by land or sea.^[10]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it a word much used in the army.^[11]
• 1855 – Baralt condemns its figurative uses as Gallicisms.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy records the senses for machines and for affairs that go well.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from French.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, also pronominal) To leave, go away from a place: Se marchó sin despedirse.^[4][1]
2. (intransitive) To go to a place: Los ciclistas marchaban hacia el puerto.^[4][1]
3. (intransitive) To march on a place with hostile or protesting aims.^[4]
4. (intransitive) Of a machine: to run, work.^[4][1]
5. (intransitive) Of an affair: to go, develop: El negocio marcha despacio.^[4]
6. (military) Of troops: to march in order and in step.^[4][1]
7. (Uruguay, colloquial) To lose a contest; to put up with a long situation; to die.^[4]

Word family

• marcha
• contramarcha

Related words

• marchador
• marchoso
• marchapié
• marca
• French marcher
• Catalan marxar

Usage notes

The waiter's call ¡marchando! means that an order is about to be prepared.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 846
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marchar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. marchar
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4161
7. ^ 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, 508
8. ^ Cabrera, Ramón (1837), Diccionario de etimologías de la lengua castellana, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta de Marcos Bueno, p. s.v. marchar
9. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. marchar
10. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1116
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 496
12. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 422
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 491
14. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 541
15. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 246
16. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 299
17. ^ Bayo, Ciro (1910), Vocabulario criollo-español sud-americano, Madrid: Hernando, p. 136
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. marchar
19. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. marchar
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 679
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marchar