# mara



## Setwale_Charm

I am not sure where this thread belongs, here or in OL. But I have been wondering for a while already... I can see that the word *"mara"* exists in quite a lot of languages with totally different meanings. So I would like to know more about possibilities. Anybody there who knows in which languages it can be found and what it means?
 I can start with saying that in Tasmanian dialects it means "first".


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## Vivero

Hello, Setwale. As far as I know, in Spanish it is only used in Central America (El Salvador), meaning "people", "rabble", "mob". 

A mara is also (in El Salvador, some other Central America countries, and USA, mainly California) a very violent gang of young latinamerican people. A "mara" is a group of nearly-criminal youngsters. There are several maras, so the term is frequently used in plural: "las maras". The most famous is maybe the _Mara Salvatrucha_. With this meaning, the word is widely known in Spain, due to the media stress on this kind of crime activity

A demon or evil god of Buddhism  is called  "Mara" both in English and in Spanish.

Also a few toponyms in America and Spain are "Mara".

Not very much in Spanish. It is not a popular word


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## .   1

*mara *_n_ a hare like South American rodent, _Dolichotis patagonum_, inhabiting the pampas of Argentina: family _Caviidae _(cavies) [from American Spanish mara, perhaps of Araucanian origin]

My only other knowledge of the use is;The Mara which is an isolated plateau in Africa.

.,,


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## Athaulf

Setwale_Charm said:


> I am not sure where this thread belongs, here or in OL. But I have been wondering for a while already... I can see that the word *"mara"* exists in quite a lot of languages with totally different meanings. So I would like to know more about possibilities. Anybody there who knows in which languages it can be found and what it means?



In Croatian and Serbian, it's a female name, a variation of "Marija" (which would be equivalent to the English Mary).


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## Nunty

In Hebrew it can be an adverb meaning "bitterly" or a noun meaning "bile" (like in the gall bladder). It is also the feminine form of the adjective meaning "bitter".


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## roh3x2n

In Persian mara is an Object pronoun for I.


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## Ilmo

In Finland Mara is used as a nickname for persons having the Christian name Martti (= Martin in English). An example: The former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari - a conciliator in the Osovo crisis - is called with that nickname.


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## parakseno

In Romanian it only exists as a female name (Mara).


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## elroy

In Palestinian Arabic it means "woman."
"Marra" (with a doubled "r") means "time" (as in "one time," "two times," etc.).

In standard Arabic "marra" can mean both "time" (see above) or "he passed by."


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## natasha2000

Athaulf said:


> In Croatian and Serbian, it's a female name, a variation of "Marija" (which would be equivalent to the English Mary).


Or maybe from Marica???

I don't know about Croatian, but in Serbia, there's a name Marica (Read: Maritza), which is the variant of MARA.


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## DrLindenbrock

parakseno said:


> In Romanian it only exists as a female name (Mara).


 
Same as in Italian!


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## amikama

Nun-Translator said:


> In Hebrew it can be an adverb meaning "bitterly" or a noun meaning "bile" (like in the gall bladder). It is also the feminine form of the adjective meaning "bitter".


And also the feminine form of "mister". Rarely seen standing-alone, most of the times it appears in _smikhut_ before names (מרת כהן = Mrs. Cohen). It sounds quite archaic, nowadays we say גברת (_g'veret_) for "mistress".



elroy said:


> In Palestinian Arabic it means "woman."


Interesting... Coincidence?


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## mPike

In Swedish mythologi and northern European folklore a Mara is a supernational being in the shape of a small women who come to people in their sleep. She then sits on her victim's chest and "ride" him/her throughout the night, which makes you awake covered in sweat and with chestpains. Compare with the swedish word Mardröm, nightmare in english. One thought that nightmares was caused by Maras.

Best whishes


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## elroy

amikama said:


> Interesting... Coincidence?


 Perhaps.  The standard Arabic word for "woman" is "imra'a" and I think "mara" is just a colloquial form of that.  I don't know if any borrowings occurred in either direction but it's interesting all the same!


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## Nezquirc

In Swedish, it is also a slang for the marathon, and supposedly some kind of rare rodent (got that from a dicitionary, never heard before).


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## linguist786

In *Hindi/Urdu*, "maaraa" (both long a's) means "hit" (past tense)


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## Marga H

In Polish the word *mara *has several meanings :
- illusion or delusion
- ghost
- nocna mara = nightmare


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## spakh

In Turkish there is 'mera' meaning pasture.


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## kgleoite

In Irish "mara" is the genitive case of "muir" - the sea

Tonn mara - Ocean wave
Ceol na mara - Music of the Sea


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## mcibor

mPike said:


> In Swedish mythologi and northern European folklore a Mara is a supernational being in the shape of a small women who come to people in their sleep. She then sits on her victim's chest and "ride" him/her throughout the night, which makes you awake covered in sweat and with chestpains. Compare with the swedish word Mardröm, nightmare in english. One thought that nightmares was caused by Maras.


 


Marga H said:


> In Polish the word *mara *has several meanings :
> - illusion or delusion
> - ghost
> - nocna mara = nightmare


Polish: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara

I think that Polish mara and Swedish are connected. As wiki states Swedish Mara was a demon that suffocated people during their dream, and Polish Mara was a demon of multiple deaths - therefore night*mare

*Interesting - I would have never thought that Polish and Swedish were so connected as to have similar mythology

Regards
Michał Cibor


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## panjabigator

In Panjabi, it is maa.Daa with the retroflex D (sounds like a R though).  It means a "little bit."


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## Setwale_Charm

In Chechen it means "nose" or "cape" sometimes. 
In Maltese: woman, female, wife.

In Micronesian languages this word mostly means something related to the moon or the moon itself.
In Eastern Polynesian languages - (something relating) to eyes or just "eyes".


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## Setwale_Charm

I have just thought that because of the Buddhist concept of "mara" being "death" as Buddha saw it during his enlightenment and "demon" according to other versions, this root may be common in some Indian languages being part of the words related to death.


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## Flaminius

Japanese:
Japanese imported the Indian (possibly Pāli) word with a twist in the sense.  _Mara_ means penis.  Several etymological works suggests that the use was invented (or imitated?; one cannot exclude the possibility of the influence of an intermediary language) by Buddhist monks who spent most of their lives pretending sex was not part of their lives.  The word today belongs to rather a countrified register — with almost no hint of Buddhism.


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## ivanovic77

In Catalan, *mare* (pronounced "mara" [maɾə] in Barcelona), means "mother".


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> Perhaps. The standard Arabic word for "woman" is "imra'a" and I think "mara" is just a colloquial form of that.


 
Actually, mar'a is also standard مرأة (lisan al-arab) for woman.  mara is also acceptable in standard but not very formal (also from lisan al-arab).

Most collequial dialects use mara because it's shorter I guess.


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## albondiga

linguist786 said:


> In *Hindi/Urdu*, "maaraa" (both long a's) means "hit" (past tense)



maaraa khyaalthi, you left out the meaning of maaraa in Gujarati... 

In Gujarati:* maaraa *(long a's again)= "my" (first person singular possessive pronoun, masculine)

It might also have some meaning related to death, but I wouldn't know...


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## Grekh

In Spanish "Mara" it's also a female name.


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## kusurija

In Czech - actually I don't remember any word in exactly this form, but there are some associations:
1. mára - is nonexisting singular of obligue plural _máry_ = hearse, bier(funeral stretcher).
2. Mářa - not very pretty form of name Mařenka, Marie ( = Mary).


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## cherine

Mahaodeh said:


> Actually, mar'a is also standard مرأة (lisan al-arab) for woman. mara is also acceptable in standard but not very formal (also from lisan al-arab).
> 
> Most colloquial dialects use mara because it's shorter I guess.


Just a quick note to say that in some dialect, using "mara" for woman is considered rude, offensive or vulgar.
An egyptian woman, specially if she' educated, won't accept being called a mara. But in some rural areas, it is ok to use it.


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## OBrasilo

In Slovenian, _mara_ is the 3rd person singular of the verb _marati_ (to like), in the present tense, though it's mostly (if not even only) in negative sentence, as in _ne mara (he/she/it doesn't like_).
As for Portuguese, if I remember well, _Mara_ should be female name, but I could be only mixing it up with Italian.


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*, _mara_ is an adjective meaning "marine," "maritime," or "sea."


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## panjabigator

albondiga said:


> maaraa khyaalthi, you left out the meaning of maaraa in Gujarati...
> 
> In Gujarati:* maaraa *(long a's again)= "my" (first person singular possessive pronoun, masculine)
> 
> It might also have some meaning related to death, but I wouldn't know...



Are you sure it's not /maaro/  

In dialectual Hindi, /maaraa/ is the masculine. first person singular possessive pronoun. 

It also has another meaning in Panjabi: /maa.Daa/ means "bad."


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## albondiga

Hmm, based on my little bit of Gujarati exposure, I was pretty sure I had heard Hindi _meraa _as Gujarati _maaraa _(and Hindi _tumhaaraa _as Gujarati _tamaaraa _etc.)  Maybe one is a declined form?  Maybe masculine/feminine?  Different dialects or something?  I'm sure I missed something, but I don't think I'm totally wrong... maybe linguist or someone else can clarify?

(just checked a book that I had bought but never read... on _one _page it's got sentences with "_maaraa _motaa bhaai..."  and "_maaraa _piitaa..." AND "_maaro _naano bhaai..." AND also "_maarun _naam..." with no explanation!  So I guess *maaraa *is the Gujarati first person singular possessive pronoun in *some* circumstances that a native speaker will have to confirm!)

Which dialects of Hindi use _maaraa_?


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## panjabigator

Hmmm, well that does sound a bit perplexing.  Don't know for certain, so I'll leave it for Linguist to sort out.

Rajasthani, I believe, "maaraa" and "maarii," but I don't know which Rajasthani dialects do for certain.


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## Zsanna

I'm afraid the Hungarian contribution won't be very exciting. (However, it is similar to our neighbours' case.)
Mara is a nickname of Mária (=Mary), only.


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## chauvejean

In Irish it can also mean "unless", "if you dont.."


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## sokol

In German there does not exist a word 'mara' with any meaning as far as I am aware, neither in standard language nor any dialect I know.

But in Austria occasionally the female name 'Mara' is used though it is not a local name - probably came to us from Hungary.


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## ilocas2

In Czech (like in many other languages) *mara* is mara, rodent living in South America - Mara (mammal)


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## Medune

In Portuguese _Mara_ is indeed a name, but also a Brazilian slang for _*mara*vilhoso (marvellous/ wonderful) -_ actually a lexical contribution from Brazilian gay community. Apart from these, there is also _mará, _either an oar typical from certain amazon indigenous people or a rodent in southern Brazil.


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