𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹

Forms

𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹 (marei), a feminine n-stem noun.^[1][2][3] The Wulfila project records 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌽 (marein, the accusative and dative singular, 33 times), the nominative 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹 (marei, 3) and the genitive 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mareins, 2).^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *mari (“sea”),^[5] remodelled as an n-stem: Casaretto, Kroonen and Orel trace it to a feminine *marīn-, which it shares with Old Saxon meri and Old High German merī, beside the i-stem continued by Old Norse marr and Old English mere.^[6][7][8] The i-stem itself is the regular outcome of PIE *mor-i-, a neuter meaning "sea".^[7][5] Its relatives outside Germanic are Latin mare, Old Irish muir and Lithuanian mārios, the last formed like the Gothic feminine.^[7][9][10] Feist takes "standing water" as the basic meaning of the Germanic words and thinks a link with the root for "to die" not impossible; the related words certainly exist only in the European languages.^[10] Germanic also had a lengthened-grade derivative meaning "marsh, moor".^[11][7]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts 38 tokens, in Matthew, John, Luke and Mark, in Romans and 1 and 2 Corinthians.^[4] Köbler counts 41.^[3] Most are in manuscript CA (33), the rest in A (3) and B (2).^[4] In canonical order the first is Matthew 8:18.^[4] PROIEL aligns it with Ancient Greek θάλασσα (thálassa) 32 times, and once each with πέραν (péran) and παράλιος (parálios), in the phrases hindar marein "across the sea" and faur marein "by the sea".^[12][13][3] Matthew 8:24 reads jah sai wegs mikils warþ in marein, "and see, a great storm arose on the sea".^[14]

Meanings

1. sea; for Ancient Greek θάλασσα (thálassa).^[1][3]
2. An inland sea, a lake.^[2][3]

Word family

• 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 (marisaiws, “lake”)

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. marei
2. ^ a b Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 108
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. marei
4. ^ a b c d De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be
5. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹
6. ^ Casaretto, Antje (2004), Nominale Wortbildung der gotischen Sprache: Die Derivation der Substantive, Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 354
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 261
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 68
10. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. marei
11. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. marei
12. ^ Haug, Dag T. T. et al., PROIEL Treebank: The Gothic Bible (gothic-nt), 2023 release, Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages, University of Oslo
13. ^ Balg, G. H. (1887–1889), A Comparative Glossary of the Gothic Language, with Especial Reference to English and German, Mayville, Wis.: the author, p. 269
14. ^ De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be, p. Mt 8:24