maritare

Forms

maritare (first-person singular present marìto, first-person singular past historic maritài, past participle maritàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin marītō (“to provide with a husband or wife”), a verb formed from marītus (“married; husband”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The GDLI calls it a learned word,^[6] but the verb has popular outcomes in most Romance languages: Romanian mărita, Dalmatian martur, French marier, Old Occitan maridar, Catalan maridar, Spanish maridar and Portuguese maridar.^[7][8]

The Latin verb meant to give a husband or wife, to mate animals, and to “wed” vines to the trees that hold them up.^[5][9] De Vaan explains the Latin noun as a possessive formation, “having a young woman”, from a stem meaning “young woman” that he reconstructs as Proto-Indo-European *mor-ih₂-; related words are Welsh morwyn (“girl, maiden”) and Lithuanian martì (“bride”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in an anonymous text from before 1250, with the sense “to give (a woman) in marriage to a man”.^[10][3] The GDLI quotes an anonymous poem in which a woman complains c’à forza fui maritata, “that I was married off by force”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The pronominal maritarsi, of a woman “to take a husband”, is recorded in 1276, and of a man “to take a wife” in the 14th-century Somma dei vizi e delle virtù.^[10] In Boccaccio the verb also means to promise in marriage: avvenne che il re di Tunisi la maritò al re di Granata, “it happened that the king of Tunis promised her to the king of Granada”.^[3][4] A Tuscan proverb says Chi n’ha cento le marita, chi n’ha una l’affoga: the man with a hundred daughters marries them off, the man with one drowns her, because too much care in choosing loses a good match.^[11]

The figurative sense “to join”, as the Latin verb had joined vines and trees, is recorded before 1512 in Tanaglia: puoi maritar tuo vite a tutte l’ore, “you can wed your vine at any hour”.^[10][5] Jokingly, maritare l’acqua al vino means to water the wine.^[4][12] The feminine past participle maritata is used of dishes that combine two foods, as in minestra maritata, and of a fishing net made of two nets joined together.^[13]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – An anonymous text uses maritare “to give in marriage”.^[10][3]
• 1276 – The pronominal maritarsi, “to take a husband”, is recorded.^[10]
• 14th century – The Somma dei vizi e delle virtù uses maritarsi of a man.^[10]
• Before 1512 – Tanaglia uses the verb for joining a vine to its support.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give a woman in marriage, find a husband for her; by extension, to find a wife for a son.^{[3][14][13][12]}
2. (uncommon) To marry, to join two people in marriage.^[3][4][13]
3. (archaic) To betroth, promise in marriage.^[3][15][14]
4. (figurative) To join or combine; in farming, to train a vine onto a supporting tree;^[4][14][12] maritare l’acqua al vino (jocular), to water the wine.^[4][14][12]
5. (figurative) To bring into harmony, to match.^[3]
6. (maritarsi) Of a woman, to take a husband; of a man, to take a wife; of two people, to marry each other.^[4][14][13]

Word family

• maritabile
• maritato
• rimaritare
• maritaggio
• maritamento
• maritatore
• maritazione

Related words

• marito
• Latin maritus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse