*mark

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *mark "mark, sign".^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *marką (“mark, sign, stamp”),^[1] which Boutkan and Siebinga set up as *markaN "sign, mark", with no known etymology.^[2] Köbler derives Old English marc "mark (money)" and Old Saxon mark "mark (coin)" from Germanic *marka-, *markam "mark, sign",^[3][4] but Old English mearc, marc "mark, sign" from a feminine *markō.^[5]

Morphology

The daughters differ in gender and stem: Old English marc "mark (money)" is a neuter a-stem and mearc "sign" a feminine ō-stem,^[3][5] Old Saxon mark and Old High German marc are feminine consonant stems,^[6][7] and Hofmann and Popkema give Old Frisian merk "sign" as perhaps neuter.^[8]

Evidence

The sense "sign, mark" is found in Old English mearc, marc^[5] and in Old Frisian merk, with the compound brondmerk.^[8] Elsewhere the word is a unit of weight and money: Old Saxon mark in charters from 1015–1036 on,^[6] Old Dutch marc in ⟨marc argenti⟩ "a mark of silver",^[9] Old High German marc, a unit of weight for precious metals in glosses from the 12th century,^[7] and Old Frisian merk, a unit of account.^[8][10] Old English marc in this sense is a loan from Old Norse mǫrk according to Holthausen and EWA.^[11][7] Askeberg took all the West Germanic words for the unit to be borrowed from North Germanic, which EWA finds unlikely, if only because of the loan into Medieval Latin marca.^[7] Gamillscheg derives Italian marco (“sign, mark”) from Germanic *mark "token", and through Italian marcare and French marquer the French noun marque.^[12]

Competing analyses

EWA traces the weight and money unit to a Proto-Germanic feminine root noun *mark- "section", the same word that is continued in marka (“border”), and assumes a development from "section" to "unit of weight, unit of account" and then "coin".^[7] Boutkan and Siebinga derive the Old Frisian unit from Proto-Germanic *markō and compare *markaN "sign, mark", in the sense "standard"; they report that Griepentrog sets up a root noun *mark- "section" behind both the word for "border" and the unit of weight.^[2] Wiktionary instead takes the word for "mark, sign" for the source of the unit.^[1]

Meanings

1. mark, sign^[1]

Old Saxon and Old High German record the word as a unit of weight and money.^[6][7]

Derivatives

• *markōn "to mark, to notice" and *markijan "to mark, to perceive", which Wiktionary reconstructs.^[13][14]

Reflexes

• Old English: mearc, marc (“mark, sign”)^[5]
• Old Frisian: merk (“mark, sign; a unit of account”)^[8]
• Old Saxon: mark (“mark (unit of money and weight)”)^[6]
• Old Dutch: marc (“mark (of silver)”)^[9]
• Old High German: marc (“unit of weight for precious metals”)^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *mark
2. ^ a b Boutkan, Dirk; Siebinga, Sjoerd Michiel (2005), Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 1, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. merk
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. marc
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. mark
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. mearc
6. ^ a b c d Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. mark
7. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. marc
8. ^ a b c d Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. merk
9. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org, p. s.v. marka
10. ^ Bremmer, Rolf H., Jr. (2009), An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 205
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. marc
12. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 641
13. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *markōn
14. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *markijan