marra

Forms

marra f (genitive marrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[1][2] Most sources take it as a Semitic loanword.^[3][4][1][5] In the OLD it is borrowed from Classical Syriac ܡܪܐ (marrā), comparing Akkadian marru (“hoe”),^[3] and Köbler too compares the Assyrian word, perhaps itself from Sumerian.^[4] The TLL reports the view that it and Ancient Greek μάρρον (márrhon) are of Asiatic origin,^[5] and Wiktionary suggests that it came through that Greek word.^[1]

Stefan Höfler has proposed an Indo-European origin instead, from Proto-Indo-European *merh₂- (“to crush”): a noun *mr̥h₂-s-eh₂ (“crusher”) would have given Proto-Italic *marasā, then ⟨*marsā⟩ and ⟨marra⟩.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Columella,^[4] who in his poem on gardens tells the gardener not to hesitate to tear out the earth's innards with broad hoes: latis eradere viscera marris.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was a mattock or single-bladed hoe,^[3] used for tearing up weeds;^[2] Lewis & Short equate it with ligo².^[2] Pliny the Elder and Juvenal also use it.^[2] In one passage of Pliny the catfish of the Danube is pulled out with marrae, hooks, but the TLL notes that this is a conjecture, the manuscripts reading otherwise.^[2][5]

It survives in Italian marra, French marre and Spanish marra.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a garden hoe.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[2][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mattock or single-bladed hoe, a weeding hook.^[3][2][1]
2. A hook (in a disputed reading of Pliny).^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften