μάρμαρος

Forms

μάρμᾰρος (mármaros) m (genitive μαρμᾰ́ρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it probably Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because its original sense is “stone, rock” and it has no convincing connections; local words for rocks are often taken over from earlier languages.^[2][1]

Frisk, starting from the sense “stone”, connected it with μάρναμαι (márnamai, “to fight”), and explained the later sense “marble” by a popular association with μαρμαίρω (marmaírō, “to sparkle”);^[2][1] Mazon connected it with that verb directly, and LSJ describes it as rock that sparkles in the light.^[2][3] Babiniotis also takes it as a reduplicated form of the stem of that verb.^[4] Roberts proposes a reduplicated formation from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, harm”).^[1]

It was borrowed as Latin marmor, whose descendants gave the Western European words, among them English marble through Old French.^[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a piece of rough, jagged rock used as a missile, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and once an epithet of a stone.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Euripides and Aristophanes still use it for a rock, and Alcman for a millstone.^[8][3] The sense marble appears in the Hippocratic writings and Theophrastus, and Strabo speaks of the quarries of Pentelic marble, with the word as a feminine.^[3] Callimachus has a neuter μάρμαρον (mármaron).^[3][2] Theocritus uses it for a marble tombstone, and Plutarch and Dioscorides for chips of marble.^[3] The veterinary writers use it for a callus on an ass's foot, a metaphor from the stone, as in Latin.^[2]

In the Bible, marble is among the precious goods of Babylon in Revelation, and the Septuagint uses the word once.^[9][10][11] It survives as Modern Greek μάρμαρο (mármaro), which continues the Hellenistic neuter.^[12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a jagged rock thrown as a missile.^[7][3]
• 7th century BC – Alcman uses it for a millstone.^[8][13]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it for marble.^[3][13]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for marble, and Theocritus for a marble tombstone.^[3][9][13]
• 1st century BC – 1st century AD – Strabo mentions the quarries of Pentelic marble.^[3][13]
• 1st century AD – Revelation lists marble among precious goods.^[9]
• Early 14th century – English has marble, from Old French, ultimately from Latin.^[6]
• Modern Greek – The word continues in the neuter form for marble.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of rock, a stone, especially one used as a missile.^[8][3][7]
2. A millstone.^[8]
3. Marble.^[3][9]
4. A work in marble, a tombstone.^[3]
5. Chips made by cutting marble.^[3]
6. (veterinary) A callus on the foot of an ass.^[2]

Word family

• μαρμάρεος (marmáreos)
• μαρμαρίζω (marmarízō)
• μαρμάρινος (marmárinos)
• μαρμαρόεις (marmaróeis)
• μαρμαρουργός (marmarourgós)
• μαρμαρόω (marmaróō)

Related words

• Latin marmor
• English marble

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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
10. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
11. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge