marra

Forms

marra f (plural marre)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin marra (“hoe, mattock”), which DELI and the GDLI class as a learned word.^[2][3] Nocentini, by contrast, sets it beside French marre, Occitan marra and Spanish marra and Portuguese marra, “iron sledgehammer”, and DEI describes it as a word of Italy and the western Romance area.^[4][5][6]

The Latin word is recorded from the 1st century AD, in Columella among others, and is thought to be a borrowing of the imperial period.^[4][7][5] Most sources take it from a Semitic language, comparing Akkadian marru (“hoe”) and Classical Syriac ܡܪܐ (marrā);^[4][8][5][1] Hesychius records Ancient Greek μάρρον (márrhon), an iron tool.^[4][8][5][1] DELI calls it a borrowing whose source has not been identified, and Zingarelli a pre-Indo-European word.^[2][9] Stefan Höfler has instead proposed an Indo-European origin, from a form of Proto-Indo-European *merh₂- (“to crush”) through Proto-Italic *marasā.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Florentine document of 1287: a heavy hoe with a broad, short blade for working the soil.^[10] DELI's first record is in Dante, between 1300 and 1313.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante's line giri Fortuna la sua rota / come le piace, e 'l villan la sua marra (“let Fortune turn her wheel as she pleases, and the peasant his hoe”) is the best-known literary use.^[3][7] Old Italian already used it to mix lime as well as to work the earth, and the masons' tool for mixing mortar is still called so.^[10][11]

In 1602 Bartolomeo Crescenzio applied the word to the triangular flukes of an anchor, and in modern use it can mean the whole anchor arm.^[2][12] DEI lists many derivatives from the 14th century on, among them a diminutive marrella and an augmentative marrone, and in other Romance languages the word gave names for knives and axes.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1287 – A Florentine document records marra.^[10]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word in the Inferno.^[2][3]
• 1602 – B. Crescenzio uses it for the fluke of an anchor.^[2]
• 1600s – It names the masons' tool for mixing lime.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (agriculture) A hoe with a broad triangular blade, used to work the surface of the soil.^[11][13][9]
2. (building) A similar tool with a long handle, used to mix lime (calcina) or mortar.^[11][13]
3. (nautical) The fluke of an anchor, the triangular end of each arm that bites into the seabed.^[11][14][1]

Word family

• marraiolo
• marrettare
• smarrare

Related words

• smarratura
• zappa
• Latin marra

Usage notes

GRADIT has a separate regional word marra “heap of stones”, recorded from 1952.^[11] It is held to be a pre-Latin or Mediterranean word, common in place names and in the Alpine dialects, and DEI links it to Ladin mara and to marocca.^{[13][14][12][5]} Meyer-Lübke set up a separate Vulgar Latin *marra (“scree”) for the Alpine words and thought it probably Gaulish.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2372
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse