Etymograph

English

mare

Mare comes from Middle English mare ‘a horse’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *márkos.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*márkos‘horse’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marhaz‘horse’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marhijō‘female horse’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*marhijā‘mare, female horse’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150mīere‘female horse, mare’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mare‘a horse’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1879mare

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*márkos‘horse’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marhaz‘horse’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marhijō‘female horse’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*marhijā‘mare, female horse’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150mīere‘female horse, mare’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mare‘a horse’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1879mare

Earliest quotation: 1879, Richard Jefferies, London: Smith: “But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me…”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *marhaz ‘horse’

marshal

through Old English mīere ‘female horse, mare’

mire

Another origin of mare

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mor-‘feminine evil spirit’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marǭ‘nightmare, incubus’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*marā‘evil spirit, nightmare’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150mare‘nightmare, monster’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mare‘an evil spirit believed to be active during the night’
  6. Englishtodaymare

Another origin of mare

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mer-‘sea, lake, wetland’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*móri‘sea’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*mari‘sea’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmare‘sea’
  5. Englishtodaymare

Today it means

noun An adult female horse.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *márkos / mare

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