μάρμαρος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

μάρμᾰρον (mármăron)

Etymology

Of uncertain origin. Based on the original sense of "stone, rock", Frisk derives the word from the root of μᾰ́ρνᾰμαι (mắrnămai, “to fight, battle”) (perhaps in a sense of "stone weapons"), with folk-etymological semantic influence from μαρμαίρω (marmaírō, “I sparkle”); others, such as Mazon, prefer to directly connect the word to μαρμαίρω (marmaírō). Due to the lack of strong evidence of connection to other words, as well as perhaps the semantic category of "local rocks", Beekes suggests Pre-Greek origin.^[1]

An alternative theory by Roberts suggests a reduplicative formation from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, cause harm, to die”), in the sense of marble's fragility.^[2]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /már.ma.ros/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈmar.ma.ros/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈmar.ma.ros/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈmar.ma.ros/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈmar.ma.ros/

Noun

μάρμᾰρος • (mármăros) m (genitive μαρμᾰ́ρου); second declension

crystalline rock
marble
1. anything made of marble, tombstone
2. marble chips

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ μάρμᾰρος; τοῦ μαρμᾰ́ρου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ μάρμᾰρος ho mármăros	τὼ μαρμᾰ́ρω tṑ marmắrō	οἱ μάρμᾰροι hoi mármăroi
Genitive	τοῦ μαρμᾰ́ρου toû marmắrou	τοῖν μαρμᾰ́ροιν toîn marmắroin	τῶν μαρμᾰ́ρων tôn marmắrōn
Dative	τῷ μαρμᾰ́ρῳ tōî marmắrōi	τοῖν μαρμᾰ́ροιν toîn marmắroin	τοῖς μαρμᾰ́ροις toîs marmắrois
Accusative	τὸν μάρμᾰρον tòn mármăron	τὼ μαρμᾰ́ρω tṑ marmắrō	τοὺς μαρμᾰ́ρους toùs marmắrous
Vocative	μάρμᾰρε mármăre	μαρμᾰ́ρω marmắrō	μάρμᾰροι mármăroi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

μαρμαράριος (marmarários)
μαρμάρεος (marmáreos)
μαρμαρεργατέω (marmarergatéō)
μαρμαρίζω (marmarízō)
μαρμαρικός (marmarikós)
μαρμάρινος (marmárinos)
μαρμαρῖτις (marmarîtis)
μαρμαρογλύπτης (marmaroglúptēs)
μαρμαρογλυφία (marmarogluphía)
μαρμαρόεις (marmaróeis)
μαρμαροκονία (marmarokonía)
μαρμαροποιός (marmaropoiós)
μαρμαρόπτερος (marmarópteros)
μαρμαρουργός (marmarourgós)
μαρμαρόω (marmaróō)
μαρμαρώδης (marmarṓdēs)
μαρμαρῶπις (marmarôpis)
μαρμάρωσις (marmárōsis)
μαρμαρωσσός (marmarōssós)

Descendants

Greek: μάρμαρο (mármaro)
→ Arabic: مرمر (marmar)
→ Bulgarian: мра́мор (mrámor)
→ Latin: marmor (see there for further descendants)
- → English: marble
- → Old Church Slavonic: мраморъ (mramorŭ)
  - → Russian: мра́мор (mrámor)
- → Old Polish: marmor
  - → Lithuanian: mármoras
→ Old Armenian: մարմար (marmar), մարմարիոն (marmarion), մարմարիովն (marmariovn)
- Middle Armenian: մարմար (marmar), մարմառ (marmaṙ), մառմառ (maṙmaṙ)
  - Armenian: մարմար (marmar)
- →? Old Georgian: მარმალი (marmali)
→ Old Georgian: მარმარილოჲ (marmariloy), მარმარინოჲ (marmarinoy)
- Georgian: მარმარილო (marmarilo)
  - → Bats: მარმარილო̆ (marmarilŏ)
  - → Mingrelian: მარმარილო (marmarilo)
→ Old East Slavic: мороморъ (moromorŭ), мироморъ (miromorŭ)
→ Persian: مرمر (marmar)
- → Azerbaijani: mərmər
- → Bashkir: мәрмәр (mərmər)
- → Karachay-Balkar: мәрмәр
- → Kazakh: мәрмәр (märmär)
- → Northern Kurdish: mermer
- → Nogai: мәрмәр
- → Ottoman Turkish: مرمر (mermer)
  - Turkish: mermer
  - → Armenian: մէռմէռ (mēṙmēṙ)
- → Punjabi:
  Gurmukhi script: ਮਰਮਰ (marmar)
  Shahmukhi script: مرمر (marmar)
- → Tatar: мәрмәр (märmär), märmär
- → Turkmen: mermer
- → Uyghur: مەرمەر (mermer)
- → Uzbek: marmar

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μάρμαρος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 907
^ Roberts, Edward A. (2014) “marmaros”, in A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 844

“μάρμαρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“μάρμαρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“μάρμαρος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
μάρμαρος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
μάρμαρος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
G3139 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
μάρμαρος in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1977) “մարմար”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume III, Yerevan: University Press, page 387a
Boisacq, Émile (1916) “μάρμαρος”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque (in French), Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 611
μάρμαρος, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μάρμαρος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 907

[2] Roberts, Edward A. (2014) “marmaros”, in A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 844

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