Etymograph

English

mark

Mark comes from Old English mearc ‘mark, sign, line of division’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mórǵs1‘edge’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*markō1‘boundary’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*marku1‘boundary’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150mearc1‘mark’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mark1
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596mark1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English mark
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour’s Lost: “A mark saies my Lady. Let the mark haue…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mórǵsWiktionary, English mark‘edge’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*markōWiktionary, English mark‘boundary’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*markuWiktionary, English mark‘boundary’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150mearcWiktionary, English mark‘mark’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500markWiktionary, English mark
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596markWiktionary, English mark. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour’s Lost: “A mark saies my Lady. Let the mark haue…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs ‘edge, boundary, border’

through Proto-Germanic *markō ‘boundary’

  • march ← marche ← marche ← *marku

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Another origin of mark

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marką‘mark, sign’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mark‘mark, sign’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150marc‘a denomination of weight, mark’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mark
  5. Englishtodaymark

Another origin of mark

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*marką‘mark, sign, stamp’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mark‘mark, sign’reconstructed
  3. Old High Germanc. 750–1050marc
  4. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350marc
  5. Germanc. 1650–presentMark
  6. Englishtodaymark

The identical plural is also from German.

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Today it means

noun A boundary; a border or frontier.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mark”. 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 *mórǵs / mark