Mary

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See also: Marý, mary, and máry

English

Etymology 1

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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A depiction of Mary, mother of Jesus, praying in quiet devotion (The Virgin in Prayer by Sassoferrato, c. 1650)

From Middle English Marie, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from Aramaic מַרְיָם (maryām) or Biblical Hebrew מִרְיָם (miryām), of uncertain meaning (see the Hebrew entry for more). Doublet of Miriam, Marie, Maria, and Mariah.

Alternative forms

  • Marie (Early New English)

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Mary (plural Marys or Maries)

  1. A female given name from Aramaic or Hebrew.
    • 1821, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto the Fifth: IV:
      I have a passion for the name of Mary,
      For once it was a magic sound to me:
      And still it half calls up the realm of fairy
      Where I beheld what never was to be.
    • 1830, Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Cottage Names:
      Mary, which is as common as a white violet, and like that has something indestructibly sweet and simple, and fit for all wear, high or low, suits the cottage or the palace, the garden or the field, the pretty and the ugly, the old and the young;
    • 1905 George M.Cohan, Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway, Mary is a Grand Old Name ( a song)
      For it was Mary; Mary / Plain as any name can be / But with propriety, society / Will say "Marie". / But it was Mary; Mary / Long before the fashions came / And there's something there that sounds so square / It's a grand old name.
    • 1996, Maeve Binchy, This Year It Will Be Different: A Christmas Treasury, Hachette UK, published 2008, →ISBN:
      They had called their children Ann, Mary, and John as a reaction against their own fancy tricksy names. Both mothers thought these names sadly unimaginative and each blamed the child of the other for the lack of vision and style.
  2. (religion) The mother of Jesus, believed in Christianity and Islam to have been a virgin at his birth, and believed by some Christians to have been born herself without sin, to have ascended to Heaven without death, and to act as a sympathetic intermediary for believers.
  3. (biblical) Any of several other women in the New Testament, notably:
    1. Mary Magdalene, a disciple of Jesus.
    2. Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and Martha.
  4. (Islam) The 19th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an, recounting the events leading up to the birth of Jesus.
    Synonym: Maryam
  5. (chiefly US, gay slang) A term of address for a male homosexual.
    Synonyms: nancy, nan; see also Thesaurus:male homosexual
    • 1941, G. Legman, Sex Variants, volume II, page 1171:
      Note also that male homosexuals will call most anyone Bessie or Mary, e.g. ‘Oh, Bessie, you're a camp!’
    • 1985, W. Dynes, Homolexis, page 150:
      In America in the 1950s,... Mary was often used in the vocative to address any fellow homosexual (‘Well, Mary...’).
  6. (Ireland, dated) A male middle name, given in honour of the Virgin Mary.
Usage notes
  • In English, the given name was considered too sacred to use before the end of the 12th century. It was very popular from the 17th to the 20th century.
Synonyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Variants and pet forms
Descendants
Translations

Etymology 2

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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From Turkmen Mary. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA or enPR then please add some!

Proper noun

Mary

  1. A city in Turkmenistan.
  2. A region in southeastern Turkmenistan around the city.
Synonyms
  • (historical names for the city): See Merv
Translations

Anagrams

Cebuano

Etymology

From English Mary, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from Aramaic מַרְיָם (maryām) or Hebrew מִרְיָם (miryām), of uncertain origin.

Proper noun

Mary

  1. a female given name from English

Chinese

Etymology

From English Mary. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɛː⁵⁵ ɹiː²¹/

Noun

Mary

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, colloquial, euphemistic) sex doll; love doll (Classifier: c)

Danish

Etymology

From English Mary. A variant of the traditional Danish Marie.

Proper noun

Mary

  1. a female given name

References

  • Danskernes Navne, based on CPR data: 20 092 females with the given name Mary have been registered in Denmark between about 1890 (=the population alive in 1967) and January 2005, with the frequency peak in the 1900s decade. Accessed on 10 August 2011.

Norwegian

Etymology

From English Mary. A variant of the traditional Norwegian Maria or Marie.

Proper noun

Mary

  1. a female given name

References

  • Kristoffer Kruken - Ola Stemshaug: Norsk personnamnleksikon, Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo 1995, →ISBN
  • Statistisk sentralbyrå, Namnestatistikk: 4 879 females with the given name Mary living in Norway on January 1st 2011, with the frequency peak around 1920 . Accessed on 10 August 2011.

Swedish

Etymology

From English Mary as a variant of the traditional Swedish Maria. First recorded as a Swedish given name in 1808.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Mary c (genitive Marys)

  1. a female given name
    • 2004, Majgull Axelsson, Den jag aldrig var, Prisma, →ISBN, page 17:
      Hon visste att hon hade vuxit upp i ett vitt hus, att hennes mor hade döpt henne till Mary och att hennes far hade kallat henne Marie och att hon långt upp i tonåren hade lekt att hon levde två liv, att hon hade ett andra jag som vaknade när hon somnade och somnade nät hon vaknade.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

  • Roland Otterbjörk: Svenska förnamn, Almqvist & Wiksell 1996, →ISBN
  • Statistiska centralbyrån and Sture Allén, Staffan Wåhlin, Förnamnsboken, Norstedts 1995, →ISBN: 10 519 females with the given name Mary living in Sweden on December 31st, 2010, with the frequency peak in the 1920s. Accessed on 10 August 2011.

Anagrams

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from English Mary. Doublet of Maria.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Mary (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜒᜇᜒ)

  1. a female given name from English

Turkmen

Turkmen Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia tk
Turkmen Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia tk

Proper noun

Mary (Cyrillic Мары)

  1. Mary (a city in Turkmenistan)
  2. Mary (a region of Turkmenistan; capital: Mary)