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maritus

Etymology and origin of the Latin word maritus

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Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Plautus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*mori-)

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [maˈriː.tʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [maˈriː.tus][1]

Forms

marītus m (genitive marītī, feminine marīta); second declension[1]

Etymology

De Vaan derives it with a possessive suffix from a stem *morei- or *morih₂- “young woman”, so “having a young woman”.[2][1] Cognate with Welsh morwyn (“girl”) and, from a related stem, Sanskrit मर्य (márya-, “young man”).[2] The traditional view, followed by Lewis and Short, takes it from mās “male”, and Isidore said it was named “as if mās”.[3][4][5] The OLD calls it doubtful.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, whose old married man lives here.[2][6] Köbler dates the adjective from Ennius and Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[7]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it was a husband, as on an epitaph of a wife who loved her husband with her heart, and in the plural marītī the married couple.[6][4] Of domestic animals it was the male kept for breeding, as Virgil's stallion.[6] The adjective meant married, and of vines “wedded” to the trees that support them, as Cato advises, and relating to marriage, conjugal, as Horace's lēx marīta, Augustus' marriage law.[6][4]

It survives in Italian marito, French mari, Spanish marido and Romanian mărit.[1] Marītālis gave English marital about 1600.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a married old man.[6][7]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of trees well wedded to their vines.[6][7]
  • 17 BC – Horace's Carmen saeculare names the marriage law.[6]
  • c. 1600 – English marital is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A husband, (plural) a married couple.[6][4]
  2. (of animals) A male kept for breeding, a mate.[6]

Adjective

  1. Married.[6]
  2. (of vines and trees) “Wedded”, joined.[6]
  3. Of marriage, conjugal, nuptial.[6]

Word family

  • bimarītus
  • commarītus
  • marītālis
  • marītō
  • ūnimarīta
  • marīta
  • coniux
  • English marital

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Cite this entry

“Maritus.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/maritus. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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