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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word mare

mare1 big

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1442 document cited by Tiktin
Inherited from
Latin mas
Ultimate origin
Latin mās
Etymology tree of mare1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mās
Aromanian mari
Romanian mare
From the same root · mare1
Latin masculus ← mās

Pronunciation

Forms

mare m or f or n (plural mari)[1]

Etymology

The word for “big” is probably inherited from Latin mās (“male”), through its accusative ⟨marem⟩.[2][3][4][5] Diez already proposed it, and it is the view of Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, Tiktin, MDA2 and the DLR.[2][5][3][6] The REW rejected it.[2]

How “male” became “big” is explained in several ways.[2] Pușcariu starts from the Latin word added to animal names to mark the male, which is usually the larger animal; he points to fată mare, which means “marriageable girl”, not “big girl”.[5] Tiktin thought magnus (“big”) or Albanian madh (“big”) may have helped.[4] Ciorănescu prefers the common link between growing up and becoming big.[2]

Wiktionary takes another view: it derives the word from maiōrem (“greater”) through a Common Romanian form with /au/, like Dalmatian maur, and rates the source “male” less likely.[1] Cihac had already proposed this Latin source.[7] Other proposals, which Ciorănescu finds even less convincing, are a pre-Latin word compared with Old Irish már (“great”), Old High German māri (“famous”) (Scriban's view), and mare2 “sea” (Spitzer).[2][8]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian mari, Megleno-Romanian mari and Istro-Romanian mǫre.[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a document of 1442.[4] A man called Toader Marele “the Great” is named in 1490.[4] In Romanian texts the word is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.[3][11] A Coresi text says of the mustard seed that once grown it is „mai mare de toate vearzele” “larger than all herbs”.[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides size, the adjective expresses quantity, age, length of time, intensity and rank.[12][2] Age is still visible in s-a făcut mare “he has grown up”, fată mare “girl of marriageable age” and frate mai mare “elder brother”.[12][5] Rank appears in titles such as mare logofăt “great chancellor” and in Ștefan cel Mare “Stephen the Great”.[13][4] Old texts used the plural mare as well as mari: boi mare “big oxen” (1588).[4]

The derivatives include măreț “grand, majestic”, mări “to enlarge”, mărime “size” and preamări “to glorify”.[2] Pușcariu derived măreț from a Latin *maricius;[2] Ciorănescu treats it as Romanian.[2] mărinimos “magnanimous” is a learned compound modelled on Latin magnanimus.[2]

Timeline

  • 1442 – the first record, in a document.[4]
  • 1490 – the byname Marele “the Great”.[4]
  • early 16th century – mare in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[3][11]
  • 1581 – mari pești “great fishes” in the Palia of Orăștie.[6]
  • 1588 – the old plural mare in 38 de boi mare “38 big oxen”.[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. big, large; larger than usual in size, area, height, length or volume: literă mare “capital letter”, degetul mare “thumb”;[12][1] în mare “broadly, in outline”.[12][1]
  2. Great in quantity or number; of rivers, swollen; of prices, high.[12]
  3. Grown up;[12] mai mare “older”: fată mare “girl of marriageable age”.[12]
  4. Long in time: Postul Mare “Lent”.[12]
  5. Strong, intense: of light, heat, sound, cold, speed or feelings.[12]
  6. Important; great, famous; high in rank: zi mare “feast day”, socru mare “the groom's father”.[12][1]

Word family

  • măreț
  • măreție
  • mări
  • mărime
  • mărire
  • preamări
  • maimare
  • mărinimos

mare2 sea

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1500 Psaltirea Hurmuzaki
Inherited from
Latin mare
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *móri
Etymology tree of mare2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mare
French mer
Italian mare
Romanian mare
Spanish mar
English mare
From the same root · mare2
Latin bimaris ← mare
Latin marīnus ← mare
Latin mariscus ← mare
Latin maritimus ← mare
Italian marino ← mare
English nightmare ← mare

Pronunciation

Forms

mare f (plural mări)[1]

Etymology

The word for the sea is inherited from Latin mare (“sea”).[2][3][5][14][1] The Latin word comes from Proto-Italic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.[1][15]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian amare, Megleno-Romanian mari and Istro-Romanian mǫre.[2][16][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian mare, French mer, Occitan mar, Catalan mar, Spanish mar and Portuguese mar.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, which speaks of those who are far away at sea.[6][3] Tiktin also cites the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 21:5).[4]

Semantic evolution

Figurative senses came early: a vast expanse and a great multitude.[12][4] Old texts speak of „marea de focu” “the sea of fire”.[4] Several expressions belong to the folk tale: peste nouă mări și nouă țări “over nine seas and nine lands”, i.e. very far away, and a făgădui marea cu sarea “to promise the sea with the salt”, i.e. the impossible.[4][12] Pușcariu and Spitzer disagreed about the origin of this last phrase.[2]

In Maramureș ochi de mare, literally “eye of the sea”, names a glacial lake.[17]

Timeline

  • early 16th century – mare “sea” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.[3][6]
  • c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.[4]
  • 1688 – năsipul mării “the sand of the sea” in the Bucharest Bible.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sea: a large body of deep salt water, usually joined to the ocean by a strait; the part of the ocean near the coast; by extension, the ocean.[12][1]
  2. (figurative) A vast expanse.[12]
  3. (figurative) A great multitude or quantity: o mare de oameni “a sea of people”.[12][8]

Usage notes

The adjective ends in -e in all genders, with the plural mari; the noun has the plural mări.[12][1]

A third, minor word mare (also mar) means “a great number or amount” in old and popular use, after atâta: atâta mare de vreme “so much time” (c. 1825).[6][3] MDA2 compares it with amar.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 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. mare
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1433
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mare
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 88
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mare
  7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 158
  8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 775
  9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 613
  10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 183
  11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 11:3
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 619
  13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 384
  14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5349
  15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  16. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 89
  17. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. mare

Related etymologies

  • bun · also from Latin
  • unde · also from Latin
  • veni · also from Latin
  • noi · also from Latin
  • bine · also from Latin
  • un · also from Latin
  • și · also from Latin
  • sta · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Mare.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/mare. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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