Mare

Mare

Noun · /mɛər/

Definition

An adult female horse, donkey, or other equine animal over four years of age; (in place names) mare refers to the large dark plains on the Moon — mare being Latin for sea, as early astronomers believed these dark areas were bodies of water.

Origin

From Old English meare (female horse), from Proto-Germanic *marhjō, related to Old Norse merr and German Mähre. The equine sense has been in English since the Old English period. The lunar sense comes from Latin mare (sea) — the term used by Galileo and other early astronomers for the dark volcanic plains on the Moon's surface, which they mistook for oceans.