Marches

:For other uses, see March (disambiguation).

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Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Frankish word marka ("boundary") and refer to an area along a border, e.g. the borderland between England and Scotland. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe.

Related Topics:
Frankish - Carolingian Dynasty

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The Frankish word marka comes from Proto-Germanic marko, which itself comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *mereg-, meaning "edge, boundary". The root *mereg- gave Latin margo ("margin"), Old Irish mruig ("borderland"), Persian marz ("border, land"), and indeed even English "mark". It seems 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 word "march" in the sense of borderland was borrowed from French marche, which had borrowed it from Frankish. The word "mark" in the sense of borderland is a modern borrowing from German Mark.

Related Topics:
Proto-Germanic - Proto-Indo-European - Latin - Old Irish - Persian - Old English - French - German

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