margo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈmar.ɡoː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmar.ɡo]^[1]

Forms

margō m or f (genitive marginis); third declension^[1] It is usually masculine, but feminine in Vitruvius, Juvenal and some poets, and Priscian lists it among nouns of either gender.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *marg-en-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mrǵ-n- (“border”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs (“boundary”).^[5][1][6] Cognate with Old Irish mruig (“territory”), Welsh bro (“country, land”) and the Gaulish names Brogimāros and Allobroges “foreigners”, with Hittite mārk- (“to divide, separate”), Persian مرز (marz, “region”) and Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌺𐌰 (marka, “border, area”), and so with English mark and English march.^[5][2][1] De Vaan takes the a as the regular Latin outcome of the zero grade in an n-stem, against Schrijver's rule of *mo- becoming *ma- before r and a velar.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is the building contract of Puteoli of 105 BC, which the OLD quotes first: tiles are to be fixed with iron and an edging laid on them.^[7][2] Varro, with whom de Vaan begins, writes of a stream with stone banks.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It first meant a retaining wall, bank or edging, and the gunwale of a ship, then a flange or rim, of a roof tile in Vitruvius, of a shield in Livy, of a dish in Petronius.^[2] More generally it was a border or edge: of a land or empire, of the Red Sea, of a spring or river bank, of a wound, and Statius uses it of the threshold of a temple.^[2][3] Ovid has it for the margin of a writing tablet, where a letter has been erased, and Juvenal for the full margin of a book.^[2] Lewis and Short note that Cicero and Caesar never use it.^[3]

Medieval writers used it of the edge of the world, of fenland and of a ship's side, and the Niermeyer dictionary records “board of a ship”.^[8][9] It survives in French marge, Italian margine, Spanish margen, Portuguese margem and Romanian margine,^[1] and the English word appears in the mid-14th century for the edge of a sea or lake and in the late 14th for the margin of a page.^[10]

Timeline

• 105 BC – The Puteoli building contract orders an edging to be laid on tiles.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro writes of stone banks of a stream.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the rim of a shield.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the margin of a writing tablet and of the shore.^[2][3][7]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal speaks of a book written up to the margin.^[2][7]
• 672 – Aldhelm places Britain at the farthest edge of the world.^[8]
• mid-14th century – English Margin is borrowed into English.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A retaining wall, a bank, an edging; the gunwale of a ship.^[2]
2. A flange, a rim.^[2]
3. A border, an edge, a boundary; a shore or river bank.^[2][3]
4. The margin of a book or writing tablet.^[2][3]
5. The threshold of a building.^[2][3]
6. (Medieval Latin) The side of a ship.^[9]

Word family

• marginō

Related words

• English margin
• English mark
• English march

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes margo, the natural brink of a surface thought of as a line, from ōra, an artificial edging that includes part of the surface, so that one says ora togae but margo fluminis.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper