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Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *márkos Proto-Germanic *marhaz Proto-Germanic *-jō Proto-Germanic *marhijō Proto-West Germanic *marhijā Old English miere ▲ Proto-Germanic *marhaz Proto-West Germanic *marh Old English mearh Middle English mare English mare From Middle English mare, meare, meir, mer, mere, meyre, mure, from Old English mīere (“female horse, mare”), from Proto-West Germanic *marhijā, from Proto-Germanic *marhijō (“female horse”), from *marhaz (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *márkos (“horse”). Cognates Cognate with Scots mere (“mare”), Saterland Frisian Märe (“mare”), West Frisian merje (“mare”), Dutch merrie (“mare”), German Mähre (“female horse”), Danish mær (“old mare”), Faroese mer (“mare”), Icelandic meri (“mare”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk merr (“mare”), Swedish mæhr, mær, mähr, märr (“mare”); also Breton marc'h (“horse”), Cornish margh (“horse”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic marc (“horse”), Welsh march (“horse”).

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mer- Proto-Indo-European *mor-der. Proto-Germanic *marǭ Proto-West Germanic *marā Old English mare Middle English mare English mare Inherited from Middle English mare, from Old English mare (“nightmare, monster”), from Proto-West Germanic *marā, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ (“nightmare, incubus”), from Proto-Indo-European *mor- (“feminine evil spirit”). Doublet of mara. After becoming obsolete in its original usage, the term was recreated in modern colloquial speech as a clipping of the derived term nightmare. Cognates Akin to Dutch (dial.) mare, German (dial.) Mahr, Old Norse mara ( > Danish mare, Swedish mara (“incubus, nightmare”); also Old Irish Morrígan (“phantom queen”), Albanian merë (“horror”), Polish zmora (“nightmare”), Czech mura (“nightmare, moth”), Greek Μόρα (Móra).

Borrowed from Latin mare (“sea”), from Proto-Italic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri, possibly from *mer-. Doublet of maar and mere (“a body of standing water”).

See mayor.