Marry
Pronunciation in accents without the w, English-language_vowel_changes_before_historic_/r/#Mary.E2.80.93marry.E2.80.93merry_merger, "Mary, marry, merry" merger in accents with the
Origin 1
From Middle English marien, from Anglo-Norman marier, from Latin marÄ«tÄre ("to wed"), from marÄ«tus ("husband, suitor"), from Proto-Indo-European *meryo ("young man"), same source as Sanskrit मरà¥à¤¯ (marya, "suitor, young man"). Compare its feminine derivatives - Welsh morwyn ("girl"), merch ("daughter"), Crimean Gothic marzus ("wedding"), Ancient Greek μεῖÏαξ (meirax, "boy; girl"), Lithuanian martì ("bride"), Avestan (mairya, "yeoman").
J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.v. "woman" (London: Dearborn Fitzroy, 1997), 656.
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Full definition of marry
Verb
- (intransitive) To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. from 14th c.Neither of her daughters showed any desire to marry.
- EvelynA woman who had been married to her twenty-fifth husband, and being now a widow, was prohibited to marry.
- (transitive, in passive) To be joined to (someone) as spouse according to law or custom. from 14th c.She was not happily married.His daughter was married some five years ago to a tailor's apprentice.
- (transitive) To dispose of in wedlock; to give away as wife or husband. from 14th c.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XXIII:The kyngdome of heven is lyke unto a certayne kinge, which maryed his sonne ....
- (transitive) To take for husband or wife. from 15th c.In some cultures, it is acceptable for an uncle to marry his niece.
- (transitive) Figuratively, to unite in the closest and most endearing relation. from 15th c.The attempt to marry medieval plainsong with speed metal produced interesting results.
- Bible, Jer. iii. 14Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you.
- (transitive) To unite in wedlock or matrimony; to perform the ceremony of joining spouses, ostensibly for life; to constitute a marital union according to the laws or customs of the place. from 16th c.A justice of the peace will marry Jones and Smith.
- GayTell him that he shall marry the couple himself.
- (nautical) To place (two ropes) alongside each other so that they may be grasped and hauled on at the same time.
- (nautical) To join (two ropes) end to end so that both will pass through a block.
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Pronunciation
Origin 2
Interjection
!- (obsolete) indeed!, in truth!; a term of asseveration.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part ii, Act 1, Scene 2,I have chequed him for it, and the young lion repents; marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.