Etymology
The Frankish word marka and the Old English word mearc both come from Proto-Germanic *marko (Old Norse merki "boundary, sign" and mörk "borderland, forest"), denoting a border land between two centres of power. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia took its name from West Saxon mearc "marches", which in this instance referred explicitly to the territory's position on the Anglo-Saxon frontier with the Romano-British to the west. It seems that in Old English "mark" meant "boundary" or "sign of a boundary", and the meaning later evolved into "sign in general", "impression or trace forming a sign".
The Germanic word ultimately derives from a Proto-Indo-European root *mereg-, meaning "edge, boundary". The root *mereg- produced Armenian marz ("border, land"), Latin margo ("margin"), Old Irish mruig ("borderland"), and Persian marz ("border, land").
Read more about this topic: March (territory)
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)