mărita

Forms

mărita (third-person singular present mărită, past participle măritat, third-person subjunctive mărite) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin marītō (“to give in marriage, marry”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} formed on marītus (“husband”),^[7][1] which survived in Old Romanian as the noun mărit “husband”.^[2]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian mãrit, Megleno-Romanian marit and Istro-Romanian marit.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates are Italian maritare, French marier, Occitan maridar, Catalan maridar, Spanish maridar and Portuguese maridar, and Albanian borrowed the Latin verb as Albanian martoj.^[2][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1551–1553, in a Gospel text at Matthew 22:30, the verse on those who neither marry nor are given in marriage.^[5] MDA2's first record is a text of before 1580: „Acestea sântu preutesele celea ce după moarte popilor eale s-au măritatu” “These are the priests' wives who married again after the death of the priests”.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb is said of a woman: reflexive “to get married”, transitive “to give a daughter in marriage”; a man se însoară.^[4][5] Regionally and ironically it is used of a man who moves into his wife's house.^[3] A familiar sense “to sell off something worthless, to get rid of it” appears in Creangă: „și Prepeleac mărită capra” “and Prepeleac sold off the goat”.^[5][11] Slang extends it to “to lose” and “to give away”.^[12] The derivative măritiș means “marriage”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1551-1553 – the first record, in a Gospel text (Matthew 22:30), according to Tiktin.^[5]
• before 1580 – s-au măritatu “they married” of priests' widows.^[3][10]
• 1645 – „venindu-i vremea de măritat” “when the time came for her to marry” in a translation of Herodotus.^[10]
• 1649 – mărit “I give in marriage” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive, of a woman) To marry, to get married.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive) To give a girl in marriage, to marry off.^[4][1]
3. (transitive, colloquial) To sell something worthless for next to nothing, to get rid of it.^[4][14]

Word family

• măritiș

Related words

• mărit
• Aromanian mãrit
• Latin marītō

Usage notes

The bride's partner is introduced with cu or, popularly, după: s-a măritat cu un medic.^[3] The compound mărită-mă-mamă is a folk name of a wild rose.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. mărit
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1457
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 629
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mărita
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5361
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 667
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366
10. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mărita
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. mărita
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mărita
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. mărit
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mărita