μάρμαρος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• μάρμᾰρον (mármaron)

Etymology

Of uncertain origin. Based on the original sense of "stone, rock", Frisk derives the word from the root of μᾰ́ρνᾰμαι (márnamai, “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.

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.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /már.ma.ros/ → /ˈmar.ma.ros/ → /ˈmar.ma.ros/

• (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 • (mármaros) m (genitive μαρμᾰ́ρου); second declension

1. crystalline rock
2. 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 mármaros	τὼ μαρμᾰ́ρω tṑ marmárō	οἱ μάρμᾰροι hoi mármaroi
Genitive	τοῦ μαρμᾰ́ρου toû marmárou	τοῖν μαρμᾰ́ροιν toîn marmároin	τῶν μαρμᾰ́ρων tôn marmárōn
Dative	τῷ μαρμᾰ́ρῳ tôi marmárōi	τοῖν μαρμᾰ́ροιν toîn marmároin	τοῖς μαρμᾰ́ροις toîs marmárois
Accusative	τὸν μάρμᾰρον tòn mármaron	τὼ μαρμᾰ́ρω tṑ marmárō	τοὺς μαρμᾰ́ρους toùs marmárous
Vocative	μάρμᾰρε mármare	μαρμᾰ́ρω marmárō	μάρμᾰροι mármaroi
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

Further reading

• “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] (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, 2011