marido

Forms

marido m (plural maridos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin marītus (“married; husband”), with the same form in Old Spanish, marido.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word was first an adjective, “married, conjugal”, also used in farming of trees “wedded” to the vine, and was then used as a noun for the husband.^[5][6]

The same word is Portuguese marido, Galician marido, Catalan marit, Occitan marit, French mari and Italian marito.^[7][8][1] Corominas notes that it is common to all the Romance languages except Romanian;^[2][7] Meyer-Lübke adds that it is missing in the southern Italian dialects and in the modern French dialects, where it is mostly replaced by phrases meaning “my man”.^[2][7]

Corominas, like Covarrubias, derives the Latin word from mās (“male”).^[2][3][9] De Vaan instead traces it to Proto-Italic *marīto- (“having a young woman”), a possessive formation on Proto-Indo-European *mori- (“young woman”), and compares Welsh morwyn (“girl”) and Lithuanian martì (“bride”).^[10][1] The OLD calls the origin doubtful.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date the first record to a charter of 1027.^[2][3] The earliest hit in the CDH is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where Rachel gives her maid Bylfa to „Jacob so marido” “Jacob her husband”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “married man, in relation to his wife” has not changed.^[4][13] From early times, however, the word was also applied to a concubine's partner, which is why Juan Ruiz specifies marido velado “lawfully wedded husband”; for the same reason esposo is preferred in Argentina and other American countries.^[2]

Covarrubias in 1611 mentions malmaridada “badly married woman”.^[9] The Academy's 1884 edition records proverbs such as „Al marido malo, cebadlo con las gallinas de par del gallo”, advising wives to win over a bad husband with good food.^[14] Marido complaciente is a husband who tolerates his wife's infidelity.^[15] The verb maridar is in Nebrija, and maridaje, from French mariage, appears in Lope early in the 17th century.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1027 – a charter in Oelschläger's list.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has so marido.^[12]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca: „nos te daremos buen marido” “we will give you a good husband”.^[12]
• 1220–1250 – first record of maridado “married”.^[3]
• 1444 – first record of the learned marital.^[3]
• 1550 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin mas.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy records proverbs with marido.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. husband: a married man, in relation to his spouse.^[4][1]

Word family

• maridaje
• maridillo
• maridar

Related words

• marital
• esposo
• Latin marītus

Usage notes

In Argentina and other American countries esposo is preferred for the lawful husband.^[2] Marido complaciente means a complaisant, deceived husband.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 853
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marido
4. ^ a b c 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. marido
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. marido
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 449
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4168
9. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1117
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. marītus
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
13. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. marido
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 680
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marido
16. ^ 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. marido