Etymograph

English

marine

Marine comes from Middle French marin, from Latin marīnus ‘of the sea’, from mare ‘sea’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *móri ‘body of water’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*móri1‘body of water, lake’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*mari2‘sea’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmare1‘sea’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmarīnus1‘of the sea’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400marin1
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600marin1
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500marin1
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1863marine1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English marine
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin mare
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1863, William Kirby, William Spence: “And now, having marined this Royal Harry with as…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*móriWiktionary, English marine‘body of water, lake’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*mariWiktionary, Latin mare‘sea’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmareWiktionary, English marine‘sea’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmarīnusWiktionary, English marine‘of the sea’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400marinWiktionary, English marine
  6. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600marinWiktionary, English marine
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500marinWiktionary, English marine
  8. Englishearliest quotation 1863marineWiktionary, English marine. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1863, William Kirby, William Spence: “And now, having marined this Royal Harry with as…”

The story

Recorded since c.1420 as Middle English marin, borrowed from Middle French marin, from Old French, from Latin marinus (‘of the sea’), itself from mare (‘sea’), from Proto-Indo-European *móri (‘body of water, lake’) (cognate with Old English mere (‘sea, lake, pool, pond’), Dutch meer, German Meer, all from Proto-Germanic *mari). The modern pronunciation is presumably due to the influence of modern French marine, feminine singular of marin.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with marine, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *mer- ‘sea, lake, wetland’

  • remember ← remembren ← remembrer ← *rememorāre ← rememorari
  • murder ← morþor ← *morþr ← *murþrą
  • mortality ← mortalite ← mortālitās ← mortālis ← mors
  • mortal ← mortālis ← mors ← *mortis ← *mértis
  • nightmare ← nyghtmare ← *nihtmare ← *nahtmarā ← *marā
  • mortar ← morter ← mortier ← mortārium ← *morto-
  • muller
  • morbid ← morbidus ← morbus
  • mort ← mors ← *mortis ← *mértis ~ *mr̥téys
  • morn ← morgen ← *morgan ← *murganaz ← *mr̥kéno
  • mara ← *marǭ ← *mor-
  • ambrosia ← ᾰ̓μβροσῐ́ᾱ ← ᾰ̓́μβροτος ← *ə́mrətos ← *n̥mr̥tós

106 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Belonging to or characteristic of the sea; existing or found in the sea; formed or produced by the sea.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “marine”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin mare. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *móri / marine