marino

Forms

marino (feminine marina, masculine plural marinos, feminine plural marinas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin marīnus (“of the sea”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas treats it in the article on mar.^[2] The same Latin word is Portuguese marinho, Galician mariño, Asturian marín, Catalan marí, French marin and Italian marino;^[5][6][1] Italian and Spanish share the noun “seaman”.^[5] Medieval Latin already used marinus as a noun for “sailor”.^[7]

The Latin adjective is formed from mare (“sea”) with the adjective suffix -īnus.^[8][1][9] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *mari and Proto-Indo-European *móri.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250) a stone of the sign of Gemini is diente de cangreio marino “the tooth of a sea crab”.^[10][11] Corominas names Juan Ruiz as his first record, and his Breve diccionario dates the word 1335.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

For centuries marino was mainly an adjective: Nebrija glosses it as “thing of the sea”, Covarrubias in 1611 in the same way, and Autoridades in 1734 gives agua marina and pez marino as examples, with the heraldic sense of lions and other beasts that end in a fish's tail, like sirens.^[12][13][14] The noun “one skilled in navigation” entered the Academy's dictionary in 1817, and “one who serves in the navy” in 1869.^[15][16] The DLE now gives the noun for both sexes, and the colour azul marino “navy blue”.^[4]

The feminine marina, recorded from about 1250, became a noun of its own for the coast, seamanship, the navy and a seascape.^[3][4] In Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama it names a man who works on a ship.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of a cangreio marino.^[10]
• c. 1250 – the feminine noun marina is recorded.^[3]
• 1335 – first record according to Corominas's Breve diccionario.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses it as “thing of the sea”, Latin marinus.^[12]
• 1546 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo, in loba marina “seal”.^[18]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the heraldic sense.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the noun “seaman”.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy adds “one who serves in the navy”.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. marine: of or relating to the sea: la fauna marina del golfo.^[4][1]
2. Of a living being: living in or by the sea.^[4]
3. Of a colour: navy blue (azul marino); also used as a noun.^[4]
4. (heraldry) Of a fabulous creature: ending in a fish's tail, like a mermaid.^[4][14]

Noun

1. A seaman or mariner: a person who practises navigation: Su abuelo fue marino mercante.^[4][1]
2. A person with a military or professional rank in the navy.^[4]

Word family

• aguamarina
• submarino

Related words

• mar
• marina
• marinar
• marinero
• marítimo
• Latin marīnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 837
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. mar
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. marino
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. marinus
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. marino
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. marinus
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. marīnus
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. marino
10. ^ a b 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. marino
11. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. marino
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 377
13. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1114
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 501
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 557
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 492
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. marino
18. ^ 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. marino