མག་པ

Tibetan

Etymology

From Proto-Bodish *mak pa, from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *maːk (“son-in-law, genitals”). Compare Dzongkha རྨགཔ (rmagp, “husband”), and Galo magbo, Adi mak-bo, Mizo mâkpa; also compare Jingpho /da-maʔ/, Lepcha ᰕᰤᰩᰭ (myók), Southern Qiang /tʃɿ⁵⁵ ma³¹/ (Taoping), Northern Qiang /tʃɪ miɛ/ (Mawo), Situ /tə nmak/ (Ma'erkang / Barkam), Burmese သမက် (sa.mak), Lisu ꓟꓯꓸ ꓪꓵ (mǽ wy), S'gaw Karen မာ် (mạ). Benedict (1979) also compares this to 牡 (OC *mɯwʔ, “male”), though this is disputed. (STEDT)

Pronunciation

Old Tibetan: /*mak.pa/
Lhasa: /ma(k̚)ˀ˩˨.paˑ/
Dêgê: /ma⁵³ pa⁵³/
Zêkog: /ɣmak kwa/
Bla-Brang: /mak kwa/
Arik: /ɣmok kwa/

Old Tibetan:
- IPA^(key): /*mak.pa/ (reconstructed)
Ü-Tsang
- Tibetan pinyin: mag^v-ba
- (Lhasa) IPA^(key): /ma(k̚)ˀ˩˨.paˑ/
Khams
- (Dêgê) IPA^(key): /ma⁵³ pa⁵³/
Amdo
- (Zêkog) IPA^(key): /ɣmak kwa/
- (Bla-Brang) IPA^(key): /mak kwa/
- (Arik) IPA^(key): /ɣmok kwa/

Noun

མག་པ • (mag pa)

groom (generally matrilocal, living with the wife's family)
Antonym: མནའ་མ (mna' ma)
son-in-law (generally matrilocal)

Derived terms

མག་པ་བཏང (mag pa btang)
མག་པ་སློང (mag pa slong)

References

“མག་པ” in The Tibetan Living Dictionary, Mandala Collections, 2021.
Goldstein, Melvyn; Narkyid, Ngawangthondup (1984). English-Tibetan Dictionary of Modern Tibetan, page 9. University of California Press.
James A. Matisoff, editor (2015), The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus, etymon 547.