mare

Meaning

Noun

• An adult female horse.
• A foolish woman.
• A type of evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; also, the feeling of suffocation felt during sleep, attributed to such a spirit.
• (Short form of nightmare) A nightmare; a frustrating or terrible experience.
• A large, dark plain, which may have the appearance of a sea.
• On Saturn's moon Titan, a large expanse of what is thought to be liquid hydrocarbons.

Related

Opposite words

• stallion, stud and gelding refer to adult male horses (a colt refers to an immature one)

Origin

• From Middle English mare, mere, from Old English mīere, from Proto-West Germanic *marhijā, from Proto-Germanic *marhijō, from *marhaz.
• See also Scots mere, meir, mear, North Frisian mar, West Frisian merje, Dutch merrie, Danish mær, Swedish märr, Icelandic meri, German Mähre), Old English mearh.
• 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"). mara.
• 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.
• Borrowed from Latin mare ("sea"). mar, and mere.