March

pronunciation

How to pronounce March in British English: UK [mɑːtʃ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce March in American English: US [mɑːrtʃ] word us audio image

Noun:

the act of marching; walking with regular steps (especially in a procession of some kind)
a steady advance
a procession of people walking together
district consisting of the area on either side of a border or boundary of a country or an area
genre of music written for marching
Verb:

march in a procession
force to march
walk fast, with regular or measured steps; walk with a stride
march in protest; take part in a demonstration
walk ostentatiously
cause to march or go at a marching pace
lie adjacent to another or share a boundary

Word Origin

march: march: English has three words march. The commonest is also the most recent: march ‘walk as a soldier’ [16]. Etymologically, this means virtually ‘trample down’. It comes via French marcher from Gallo-Roman *marcāre, a verb derived from late Latin marcus ‘hammer’. The month-name March [12] goes back via Old French to Latin Martius, literally the ‘month of Mars, the god of war’ (Mars also gave English martial). March ‘boundary’ [13] has now almost died out, apart from its use in the plural (‘the Marches’) as a geographical name.It comes via Old French marche from medieval Latin marca (source also of marquis and marchioness); and marca in turn goes back through Frankish *marka to prehistoric Germanic *markō, source of English mark.=> martial; mark, marquis

march (v.): "to walk with regular tread," early 15c., from Middle French marcher "to march, walk," from Old French marchier "to stride, march," originally "to trample, tread underfoot," perhaps from Frankish *markon or some other Germanic source related to obsolete Middle English march (n.) "borderland" (see march (n.2)). Or possibly from Gallo-Roman *marcare, from Latin marcus "hammer," via notion of "tramping the feet." Meaning "to cause to march" is from 1590s. Related: Marched; marching. Marching band is attested from 1852. Italian marciare, Spanish marchar are said to be from French.

march (n.2): "boundary," late 13c. (in reference to the borderlands beside Wales, rendering Old English Mercia), from Old French marche "boundary, frontier," from Frankish *marka or some other Germanic source (compare Old High German marchon "to mark out, delimit," German Mark "boundary;" see mark (n.1)). Now obsolete. There was a verb in Middle English (c. 1300), "to have a common boundary," from Old French marchier "border upon, lie alongside." This is the old Germanic word for "border, boundary," but as it came to mean "borderland" in many languages new words were borrowed in the original sense (compare border(n.), bound (n.)"border, boundary"). Modern German Grenze is from Middle High German grenize (13c., replacing Old High German marcha), a loan-word from Slavic (compare Polish and Russian granica). Dutch grens, Danish groense, Swedish gräns are from German.

March: third month, c. 1200, from Anglo-French marche, Old French marz, from Latin Martius (mensis) "(month) of Mars," from Mars (genitive Martis). Replaced Old English hreðmonaþ, the first part of which is of uncertain meaning, perhaps from hræd "quick, nimble, ready, active, alert, prompt." For March hare, proverbial type of madness, see mad.

march (n.1): "act of marching," 1580s, from march (v.) or else from Middle French marche (n.), from marcher (v.). The musical sense first attested 1570s, from notion of "rhythmic drumbeat" for marching. Transferred sense of "forward motion" is from 1620s.