English

Proper noun

Mara

1. (rare) A female given name
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), ruth 1:20::

     Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

Related terms

• Marah

Etymology 2

Proper noun

Mara

1. (Hinduism) Hindu god of death; opposite of Kama.

Etymology 3

Proper noun

Mara

1. (Slavic mythology) Slavic goddess of winter and death; Marena or Maržanna.

Etymology 4

Noun

Mara ‎(plural Maras)

1. A member of a predominantly agricultural tribe of southern Assam and western Burma

Synonyms

• Lakher

Anagrams

• maar
• rama, Rama

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑrɑ/
• Hyphenation: Ma‧ra

Proper noun

Mara

1. A diminutive of the male given name Martti

Declension

English

Noun

mara ‎(plural maras)

1. (folklore) A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.
   • 1996, Catharina Raudvere, "Now you see her, now you don't: some notes on the conception of female shape-shifters in Scandinavian traditions", pages 41-55 in Sandra Billington & Miranda Green (editors) The Concept of the Goddess

     The corpus of related texts tells us that within rural society it was not improbable for your neighbour's envy of your fine cattle to take the form of a mara.

Translations

External links

• Mare (folklore) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Mara (right) tries to prevent the Buddha from attaining enlightenment, a wall painting in Penang, Malaysia

Borrowing from Sanskrit मार ‎(māra).

Noun

mara ‎(plural maras)

1. (Buddhism) a type of gods that prevent accomplishment or success.
2. (Buddhism) any malicious or evil spirit.
   • 2002, Sarvananda Bluestone, The World Dream Book, page 73

     The mara is the spirit that causes illness, accidents, and mishaps. The only protection against it is another mara who befriends a person or a group. A mara who becomes friendly is called a gunik. This transformation occurs when a mara comes to a person in a dream and states a desire to be friendly. But there are deceitful maras who pretend to be friendly, yet will betray the person who trusts them.

Translations

External links

• Mara (demon) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 3

From New World Spanish mará.

Noun

mara ‎(plural maras)

1. Any caviid rodent of genus Dolichotis, common in the Patagonian steppes of Argentina.
   • 1999, Mara, entry in Michael A. Mares (editor), Encyclopedia of Deserts, page 349,

     Maras have a white patch of fur on the rump that they flash when running, an adaptation they share with several species of deer and antelopes.

   • 2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, & Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, 5th edition, page 228,

     Although only Dolichotis, the Patagonian mara, is strongly cursorial, all caviids have certain features typical of cursorial mammals […] .

   • 2013, R. L. Honeycutt, Chapter 3: Phylogenetics of Caviomorph Rodents and Genetic Perspectives on the Evolution of Sociality and Mating Systems in the Caviidae, José Roberto Moreira, Katia Maria P.M.B. Ferraz, Emilio A. Herrera, David W. Macdonald (editors), Capybara: Biology, Use and Conservation of an Exceptional Neotropical Species, page 70,

     Maras (Dolichotis patagonum) are cursorial and prefer open areas with low vegetation for breeding and more barren sites for construction of communal dens (Taber and Macdonald 1992; Baldi 2007).

Derived terms

• Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum)
• Chacoan mara (Dolichotis salinicola)

Translations

External links

• Mara (mammal) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Dolichotis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Dolichotis on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• maar, rama, Rama

Baagandji

Noun

mara

1. hand

Dieri

Noun

mara

1. hand

Esperanto

Etymology

maro +‎ -a

Adjective

mara ‎(accusative singular maran, plural maraj, accusative plural marajn)

1. sea, of or relating to the sea

Finnish

Etymology 1

Unknown

Noun

mara

1. (folklore) A demon in Finnish folklore, similar to nightmare.

Declension

See also

• painajainen

Etymology 2

Unknown

Noun

mara

1. Mara, any member of the Dolichotis family of hare-like rodents.

Gamilaraay

Alternative forms

• mārā, márá
• murra, mŭrră

Etymology

From Proto-Central New South Wales *mara, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maɻa/

Noun

mara

1. hand
2. finger

Quotations

• 1856, William Ridley, On the Kamilaroi Tribe of Australians and Their Dialect, in Journal of the Ethnological Society of London, volume 4:

  Hand . . . mārā

  Fingers . . mŭrră.

• 1856, William Ridley, gurre kamilaroi, or Kamilaroi Sayings

  immanuel murra kawāni miedul, goe, “miēdūl waria.”

  Immanuel by hand took the girl, said “damsel arise”.

• 1873, William Ridley, Australian Languages and Traditions, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, volume 2:

  Hand|murra

• 1903, R. H. Mathews, Languages of the Kamilaroi and Other Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, volume 33:

  Hand .... ....|murra

References

• Barry Alpher Proto-Pama-Nyungan etyma, in Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method, edited by Claire Bowern and Harold Koch (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004)
• Peter Austin, A Reference Dictionary of Gamilaraay, northern New South Wales (1993)

Indonesian

Noun

mara

1. danger

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmˠaɾˠə]

Noun

mara f

1. genitive singular of muir
2. plural of muir

Conjunction

mara

1. Cois Fharraige form of mura

Mutation

Japanese

Romanization

mara

1. rōmaji reading of まら

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic اِمْرَأَة ‎(imraʾa) (definite الْمَرْأَة ‎(al-marʾa)).

Noun

mara f ‎(plural nisa)

1. woman

Mapudungun

Noun

mara ‎(using Raguileo Alphabet)

1. rabbit
2. hare

References

• Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

Martuthunira

Etymology

From Proto-Ngayarda *mara, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maɻa/

Noun

mara

1. hand

References

• Barry Alpher Proto-Pama-Nyungan etyma, in Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method, edited by Claire Bowern and Harold Koch (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004)
• Dench, Alan Charles. 1995. Martuthunira: A Language of the Pilbara Region of Western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Series C-125.

Ngiyambaa

Noun

mara

1. hand

Nyunga

Alternative forms

• marra
• maar (eastern dialect)

Noun

mara

1. (northern dialect) hand

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *maizô. Compare Old Frisian māra (West Frisian mear), Old Saxon mēro (Low German mehr), Dutch meer, Old High German mēro (German mehr), Old Norse meiri (Danish mere, Swedish mera), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌶𐌰 ‎(maiza).

Adjective

māra

1. more

Descendants

• Middle English: more
  • English: more
• Scots: mair

Panyjima

Etymology

From Proto-Ngayarda *mara, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *mara.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maɻa/

Noun

mara

1. hand

References

• Barry Alpher Proto-Pama-Nyungan etyma, in Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method, edited by Claire Bowern and Harold Koch (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004)
• Dench, Alan. 1991. ‘Panyjima’. R.M.W. Dixon, Barry J. Blake (eds.) The Handbook of Australian Languages, Volume 4. Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia, 125–244.

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *mara.

Noun

mara f

1. (literary) dream, nightmare
2. (from Slavic mythology) creature drinking blood of sleeping people; wight. See: zmora

Declension

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

mara f

1. genitive singular of muir

Spanish

Etymology

From marabunta

Noun

mara f ‎(plural maras)

1. (colloquial, El Salvador) people in one's in-group (e.g. at work, at school, in one's soccer team, who may or may not be friends)

   Cariño, hoy en la noche saldré con la mara de la empresa - Honey, today at night I'll go out with the people from the company

2. (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico) criminal gang

   A mediados de 2012, se acordó una tregua entre las maras salvadoreñas y el gobierno local. - In mid-2012, a truce was concerted between the Salvadoran gangs and the local government.

Synonyms

• pandilla f

Derived terms

• marero m

Swahili

Noun

mara (n class, plural mara)

1. time (used to form adverbial numbers, as in "one time" (i.e. once))

Usage notes

• See Appendix:Swahili numbers#Adverbial numbers.

Swedish

Etymology 1

From Old Norse mara, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ; cognate to Old English mare or mære.

Noun

mara c

1. a mythological creature blamed for giving people nightmares

Declension

Etymology 2

Contraction of maraton.

Noun

mara c

1. short for maratonlopp; a marathon race

Declension

Welsh

Noun

mara

1. Nasal mutation of bara ‎(“bread”).

Mutation