English
marble
Marble comes from Old French marbre ‘marble (stone)’, and goes back to Ancient Greek μάρμαρος.
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμάρμαροςmármaros‘anything made of marble’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmarmor‘a block or piece of marble’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400marbre‘marble (stone)’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500marble
- Englishearliest quotation 1751same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμάρμαροςmármaros‘anything made of marble’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmarmor‘a block or piece of marble’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400marbre‘marble (stone)’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500marble
- Englishearliest quotation 1751same form
Earliest quotation: 1751, George Frideric Handel, Thomas Morell (librettist): “Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide…”
The story
Inherited from Middle English marble, marbre; from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος (mármaros), perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (marmáreos, “gleaming”). The forms from French displaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *merh₂- ‘to seize, grip’
Today it means
noun A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Ancient Greek μάρμαρος / marble