Mary

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: Marý, mary, and máry

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

  • Marie (Early New English)

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English Marie, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from Aramaic מַרְיָם‎ (maryām) or Hebrew מִרְיָם‎ (miryām), of uncertain meaning. Most likely originally an Egyptian name, perhaps derived in part from mry "beloved" or mr "love". Doublet of Miriam.

Pronunciation[edit]

Proper noun[edit]

Mary (plural Marys or Maries)

  1. A female given name from Latin, Ancient Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew.
    • 1821 Lord Byron, Don Juan: Canto the Fifth: IV:
      I have a passion for the name of Mary, / For once it was a magic sound to me: / And still it half calls up the realm of fairy / Where I beheld what never was to be.
    • 1830 Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Cottage Names:
      Mary, which is as common as a white violet, and like that has something indestructibly sweet and simple, and fit for all wear, high or low, suits the cottage or the palace, the garden or the field, the pretty and the ugly, the old and the young;
    • 1905 George M.Cohan, Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, Mary is a Grand Old Name ( a song)
      For it was Mary; Mary / Plain as any name can be / But with propriety, society / Will say "Marie". / But it was Mary; Mary / Long before the fashions came / And there's something there that sounds so square / It's a grand old name.
    • 1996, Maeve Binchy, This Year It Will Be Different: A Christmas Treasury, Hachette UK, published 2008, →ISBN:
      They had called their children Ann, Mary, and John as a reaction against their own fancy tricksy names. Both mothers thought these names sadly unimaginative and each blamed the child of the other for the lack of vision and style.
  2. The Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ.
  3. The 19th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
  4. Any of several other women in the New Testament, notably Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha.
  5. (chiefly US gay slang) A male homosexual. [1925]
    Synonyms: nancy, nan; see also Thesaurus:male homosexual
    • 1941, G. Legman, Sex Variants, Vol. II, p. 1171:
      Note also that male homosexuals will call most anyone Bessie or Mary, e.g. ‘Oh, Bessie, you're a camp!’
    • 1985, W. Dynes, Homolexis, p. 150:
      In America in the 1950s,... Mary was often used in the vocative to address any fellow homosexual (‘Well, Mary...’).
  6. (Ireland, dated) A middle name for a male, given in honour of the Virgin Mary.
  7. A city in Turkmenistan.

Usage notes[edit]

  • The given name was considered too sacred to use before the end of the 12th century. It was very popular from the 17th to the 20th century.

Coordinate terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

variants and pet forms

Descendants[edit]

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Cebuano[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English Mary, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from Aramaic מַרְיָם‎ (maryām) or Hebrew מִרְיָם‎ (miryām), of uncertain origin.

Proper noun[edit]

Mary

  1. a female given name from Hebrew

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English Mary. A variant of the traditional Danish Marie.

Proper noun[edit]

Mary

  1. a female given name

References[edit]

  • [1] Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 20 092 females with the given name Mary have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1900s decade. Accessed on 10 August 2011.

Norwegian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English Mary. A variant of the traditional Norwegian Maria or Marie.

Proper noun[edit]

Mary

  1. a female given name

References[edit]

  • Kristoffer Kruken - Ola Stemshaug: Norsk personnamnleksikon, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1995, →ISBN
  • [2] Statistisk sentralbyrå, Namnestatistikk: 4 879 females with the given name Mary living in Norway on January 1st 2011, with the frequency peak around 1920 . Accessed on 10 August 2011.

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English Mary as a variant of the traditional Swedish Maria. First recorded as a Swedish given name in 1808.

Proper noun[edit]

Mary c (genitive Marys)

  1. a female given name
    • 2004, Majgull Axelsson, Den jag aldrig var, Prisma, →ISBN, page 17:
      Hon visste att hon hade vuxit upp i ett vitt hus, att hennes mor hade döpt henne till Mary och att hennes far hade kallat henne Marie och att hon långt upp i tonåren hade lekt att hon levde två liv, att hon hade ett andra jag som vaknade när hon somnade och somnade nät hon vaknade.
      (please add an English translation of this quote)

References[edit]

  • Roland Otterbjörk: Svenska förnamn, Almqvist & Wiksell 1996, →ISBN
  • [3] Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, →ISBN: 10 519 females with the given name Mary living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with the frequency peak in the 1920s. Accessed on 10 August 2011.

Anagrams[edit]

Tagalog[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English Mary.

Proper noun[edit]

Mary

  1. a female given name from English
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Mary&oldid=71206328"