Marriage in Different Languages
Discover 'Marriage' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Marriage
Afrikaans huwelik | ||
Albanian martesë | ||
Amharic ጋብቻ | ||
Arabic زواج | ||
Armenian ամուսնություն | ||
Assamese বিবাহ | ||
Aymara jaqichasiwi | ||
Azerbaijani evlilik | ||
Bambara furu | ||
Basque ezkontza | ||
Belarusian шлюб | ||
Bengali বিবাহ | ||
Bhojpuri बियाह | ||
Bosnian brak | ||
Bulgarian брак | ||
Catalan matrimoni | ||
Cebuano kaminyoon | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 婚姻 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 婚姻 | ||
Corsican u matrimoniu | ||
Croatian brak | ||
Czech manželství | ||
Danish ægteskab | ||
Dhivehi ކައިވެނި | ||
Dogri ब्याह् | ||
Dutch huwelijk | ||
English marriage | ||
Esperanto geedzeco | ||
Estonian abielu | ||
Ewe srɔ̃ɖeɖe | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) kasal | ||
Finnish avioliitto | ||
French mariage | ||
Frisian houlik | ||
Galician matrimonio | ||
Georgian ქორწინება | ||
German ehe | ||
Greek γάμος | ||
Guarani menda | ||
Gujarati લગ્ન | ||
Haitian Creole maryaj | ||
Hausa aure | ||
Hawaiian male male | ||
Hebrew נישואים | ||
Hindi शादी | ||
Hmong kev sib yuav | ||
Hungarian házasság | ||
Icelandic hjónaband | ||
Igbo ndọ | ||
Ilocano panagasawa | ||
Indonesian pernikahan | ||
Irish pósadh | ||
Italian matrimonio | ||
Japanese 結婚 | ||
Javanese palakrama | ||
Kannada ಮದುವೆ | ||
Kazakh неке | ||
Khmer អាពាហ៍ពិពាហ៍ | ||
Kinyarwanda gushyingirwa | ||
Konkani लग्न | ||
Korean 결혼 | ||
Krio mared | ||
Kurdish mahrî | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) هاوسەرگیری | ||
Kyrgyz нике | ||
Lao ການແຕ່ງງານ | ||
Latin matrimonium | ||
Latvian laulība | ||
Lingala libala | ||
Lithuanian santuoka | ||
Luganda obufumbo | ||
Luxembourgish hochzäit | ||
Macedonian брак | ||
Maithili बिहा | ||
Malagasy fanambadiana | ||
Malay perkahwinan | ||
Malayalam വിവാഹം | ||
Maltese żwieġ | ||
Maori marena | ||
Marathi लग्न | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯂꯨꯍꯣꯡꯕ | ||
Mizo inneihna | ||
Mongolian гэрлэлт | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) လက်ထပ်ထိမ်းမြား | ||
Nepali विवाह | ||
Norwegian ekteskap | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) ukwati | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବିବାହ | ||
Oromo gaa'ela | ||
Pashto واده | ||
Persian ازدواج | ||
Polish małżeństwo | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) casamento | ||
Punjabi ਵਿਆਹ | ||
Quechua casarakuy | ||
Romanian căsătorie | ||
Russian брак | ||
Samoan faʻaipoipoga | ||
Sanskrit पाणिग्रहणम् | ||
Scots Gaelic pòsadh | ||
Sepedi lenyalo | ||
Serbian брак | ||
Sesotho lenyalo | ||
Shona muchato | ||
Sindhi شادي | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) විවාහ | ||
Slovak manželstvo | ||
Slovenian poroka | ||
Somali guurka | ||
Spanish matrimonio | ||
Sundanese perkawinan | ||
Swahili ndoa | ||
Swedish äktenskap | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) kasal | ||
Tajik издивоҷ | ||
Tamil திருமணம் | ||
Tatar никах | ||
Telugu వివాహం | ||
Thai การแต่งงาน | ||
Tigrinya መርዓ | ||
Tsonga vukati | ||
Turkish evlilik | ||
Turkmen nika | ||
Twi (Akan) awareɛ | ||
Ukrainian шлюб | ||
Urdu شادی | ||
Uyghur نىكاھ | ||
Uzbek nikoh | ||
Vietnamese kết hôn | ||
Welsh priodas | ||
Xhosa umtshato | ||
Yiddish חתונה | ||
Yoruba igbeyawo | ||
Zulu umshado |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Derived from the Dutch word "huwelijk", which is in turn derived from the Old High German word "hīwī", meaning "wife" or "woman". |
| Albanian | The term "martesë" is a derivative of the Proto-Albanian word *merte-, meaning "to take a wife". |
| Amharic | The word "ጋብቻ" also means "joining or fitting together". |
| Arabic | The word 'زواج' also denotes 'binding' or 'joining' and is used in the context of tying a knot or rope. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word "ամուսնություն" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root "*ǵʰémos". This root also meant "bridegroom" and is also the source of the English word "groom". |
| Azerbaijani | "Evlilik" is derived from the Persian word "evlenmek," meaning "to marry" or "to get married." |
| Basque | In the Basque language, ezkontza also means 'covenant' and 'agreement'. |
| Belarusian | The word “шлюб” has a homophone in Russian and can also refer to a “faulty item” in Belarusian. |
| Bengali | "বিবাহ" is also a synonym for "agreement" in Bengali, as in "বিবাহ-পত্র" (marriage license). |
| Bosnian | Bosnian "brak" also means "defect" or "flaw" in Serbo-Croatian languages and is cognate with "брак" in Russian. |
| Bulgarian | The Bulgarian word "брак" also refers to "defect" or "flaw" in an object, indicating a second possible meaning related to quality or imperfections. |
| Catalan | The word "matrimoni" in Catalan has its origins in the Latin word "matrimonium", which means "union of a man and a woman". |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word "kaminyoon" also has the meaning "a pair" or "a couple of something". |
| Chinese (Simplified) | The character 姻 in 婚姻 is also used in the word姻親, which refers to relatives by marriage. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | In ancient Chinese, "婚姻" originally referred to the bond between two families, not just between two individuals. |
| Corsican | The word "u matrimoniu" was historically used in the plural form to refer to one of the four social castes of Corsica. |
| Croatian | In Chakavian dialect, the word 'brak' also means 'storm' or 'trouble'. |
| Czech | The word "manželství" is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *mьnьžьstvo, which originally meant "exchange of gifts". |
| Danish | The Danish word "ægteskab" originally referred to a contract between two families, rather than a bond between two individuals. |
| Dutch | The term "huwelijk" in Dutch originates from the Old High German "hīwilīhī", which means "family" or "cohabitation". |
| Esperanto | The word 'geedzeco' in Esperanto is derived from the Yiddish word 'gedzeke' meaning 'wedding ring'. |
| Estonian | The word "abielu" is derived from the Old Prussian word "abilan", meaning "to hold". It can also refer to a covenant or a vow. |
| Finnish | The word "avioliitto" derives from the Old Norse words "af" (off, from) and "ljótha" (to join), meaning "to separate from" or "to enter into a separate union." |
| French | The French word "mariage" comes from the Latin word "maritare," meaning "to marry," and is related to the English word "marry." |
| Frisian | The Frisian word "houlik" is thought to be related to the Dutch word "huwelijk" (meaning "marriage"), and the German word "heilig" (meaning "holy"). |
| Galician | The word "matrimonio" in Galician can also refer to the wedding ceremony or the institution of matrimony. |
| German | "Ehe" comes from Old High German "ewa" meaning "law" or "custom." |
| Greek | The word 'γάμος' has roots in the Proto-Indo-European language and is related to words meaning 'to join' or 'to come together'. |
| Gujarati | The word 'લગ્ન' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'लक्ष्ण' ('lakshan'), meaning 'mark' or 'sign', and refers to the auspicious marks that are made on the bride and groom's foreheads during the wedding ceremony. |
| Haitian Creole | The Haitian Creole word maryaj, like the English word marriage, is also derived from the Latin maritare, meaning 'to marry' or 'to give in marriage'. |
| Hausa | The word "aure" is derived from the Arabic word "zawaj" or "zawaj al-mut'ah," signifying a temporary marriage contract. |
| Hawaiian | The Hawaiian word "male male" (meaning "marriage") originates from the word "ma" meaning "to assemble" and "le" meaning "to bind". |
| Hebrew | The word "נישואים" (marriage) is derived from the root "נשׂא" (carry), implying the joining together of two people carrying each other's burdens. |
| Hindi | In addition to its primary meaning of 'marriage', 'शादी' (shaadi) has the alternate meanings of 'a wedding ceremony' and 'a wedding procession'. |
| Hmong | The word "kev sib yuav" is a compound word meaning "to unite with someone you love". |
| Hungarian | "Házasság" originally meant "household," but it gained its current meaning in the 12th century. |
| Icelandic | Hjónaband comes from the word band (bond) and hjón (couple). |
| Igbo | Igbo word 'ndọ' also means 'family' and 'home' |
| Indonesian | "Pernikahan" is also an Indonesian term for "wedding" and is derived from the root word "nikah" meaning "to wed". |
| Irish | The word "pósadh" is derived from the Old Irish word "pósad," meaning "settlement" or "agreement." |
| Italian | The word matrimonio derives from the Latin "mater", meaning mother, indicating the primary role of women in ancient Roman society. |
| Japanese | 結婚 is a combination of 結 (musubu, |
| Javanese | Palakrama literally means "to play together" and is also used to refer to playing musical instruments together in gamelan music. |
| Kannada | The word "ಮದುವೆ" is derived from the root "madhva," meaning "sweetness," suggesting the sweetness of a union between two individuals. |
| Kazakh | The word "неке" has origins in the Arabic word "nikah" and is also used to refer to a wedding ceremony in Kazakh. |
| Korean | The word '결혼' combines the hanja characters '결' ('to tie') and '혼' ('soul'), indicating a deep bond between the couple. |
| Kurdish | The word 'mahrî' also refers to matrimony and marriage gifts in Kurdish. |
| Kyrgyz | The word "нике" also means "a pact" or "an agreement" in Kyrgyz. |
| Latin | The Latin term "matrimonium" originally referred to the legal status of a woman in a household, regardless of her marital status. |
| Latvian | "Laulība" is also a name for the song in opera. |
| Lithuanian | The word "santuoka" comes from the word "szentas", meaning sacred, which reflects its religious and cultural significance. |
| Luxembourgish | The word "Hochzäit" originates from the Middle High German word "hōchzīt", meaning "great day" or "feast day". |
| Macedonian | The Macedonian word for marriage, “брак”, also means “defect”. |
| Malagasy | The word "fanambadiana" is derived from the root word "ambadi" meaning "exchange" or "barter". |
| Malay | The word "perkahwinan" is derived from "kahwin", which means "to marry", and the prefix "per-", which indicates a state or condition. |
| Malayalam | The Malayalam word "വിവാഹം" is originally derived from the Sanskrit phrase "विवाह" meaning "to lead or carry home," later also coming to signify "the act or practice of marrying". |
| Maltese | "Żwieġ" in Maltese comes from the Arabic word "zawāj" meaning "to join", and is also related to the word "zawjah" meaning "side" or "direction". |
| Maori | In Maori, "marena" can also mean "companion" or "beloved one" |
| Marathi | The Marathi word "लग्न" (lagn), besides meaning "marriage," also refers to a specific and auspicious period in the Hindu lunar calendar. |
| Mongolian | The word "гэрлэлт" is derived from the Mongolian word "гэр" (home) and can also mean "to settle down" |
| Nepali | Nepali word "विवाह" derives from the Sanskrit word "वि+वाह" meaning "entering" "carrying" referring to the groom carrying the bride in traditional Nepali weddings. |
| Norwegian | The word "ekteskap" originally referred to a union between two people, regardless of gender, but its meaning shifted towards marriage specifically in the 19th century. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | Other interpretations of uku-kwati include the "taking" or "holding" of something. |
| Pashto | In Pashto, the word "واده" also refers to a contract or agreement, highlighting the legal and social significance of marriage in the culture. |
| Persian | The term 'ازدواج' (marriage) derives from the Middle Persian phrase 'hw-z'awj,' which carried the dual meaning of 'yoke' and 'union'. |
| Polish | Etymology of "małżeństwo": "małż" (meaning "oyster") + "-eństwo" (suffix forming collective nouns), originally referring to "the state of being married to a spouse" in the context of an arranged marriage based on negotiations between families, thus resembling a trade transaction where the bride and groom were compared to two oysters. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "casamento" in Portuguese is derived from the Latin "casamentum", meaning "a joining together", and also refers to the act of building a house or dwelling. |
| Punjabi | In Punjabi, "ਵਿਆਹ" (vyah) is a cognate of the Sanskrit word "विवाह" (vivāha), meaning both "marriage" and "wedding feast." |
| Romanian | "Căsătorie, ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷes- ("to dwell, settle"), also means "abode" in Romanian." |
| Russian | "Брак" can also mean "defect" in Russian, which is etymologically related to the Latin word "bracus" (meaning "short, deformed"). |
| Samoan | The word "faʻaipoipoga" can also refer to a "wedding ceremony" or an "arrangement". |
| Scots Gaelic | The word "pòsadh" has several meanings related to matrimony, including marriage, wedding, ceremony, spouse, husband or wife and the marriage contract itself. |
| Serbian | The word "брак" in Serbian can also refer to a defect or flaw, highlighting the potential imperfections in a union. |
| Sesotho | The word 'lenyalo' is derived from the verb 'nyala', which means 'to fetch' or 'to marry', highlighting the traditional practice of a groom 'fetching' his bride from her family. |
| Shona | The Shona word "muchato" can also refer to a "union" or "alliance" in a non-marital context. |
| Sindhi | The word "شادي" in Sindhi can also mean "happiness" or "joy". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | විවාහ is derived from the Sanskrit root 'vivvah', which also means 'to divide', referring to the union of two families through marriage. |
| Slovak | In Hungarian, the word "házasság" (marriage) comes from the word "ház" (house) and the suffix "-ság" (state or condition), suggesting the idea of marriage as a household unit. |
| Slovenian | "Poroka" originally meant an agreement in general. |
| Somali | "Guurka" in Somali can also refer to a form of marriage where a woman is given to another woman to look after and raise (similar to a foster daughter) and the man will be the father of any children that are born. |
| Spanish | Despite its similarity to 'matrimony' in English, 'matrimonio' is related to 'madre' (mother) and refers to the relationship between a mother and her child |
| Sundanese | "Perkawinan" in Sundanese comes from the root word "kawin" (to marry) and the prefix "per-" (indicating a state or condition) |
| Swahili | The Proto-Bantu root of Swahili "ndoa" is also the root of the words for "home" and "clan" in various Bantu languages. |
| Swedish | The word "äktenskap" is derived from the Old Norse word "ektarskapr", meaning "union of equals" or "state of being married". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | "Kasal," meaning "marriage," can also refer to "the act of joining two things together." |
| Tajik | The word "издивоҷ" is derived from the Arabic word "zawāj" and can also refer to a religious ceremony or union. |
| Tamil | The word 'திருமணம்' has the alternate meaning of 'auspiciousness' and is derived from the words 'திரு' (auspicious) and 'மணம்' (union). |
| Telugu | The Telugu word "వివాహం" can be literally interpreted as "entering a life together." |
| Thai | The Thai word "การแต่งงาน" (marriage) literally translates to "the act of decorating." |
| Turkish | "Evlilik" is also used in Turkish to refer to the institution of marriage, as well as the ceremony and legal proceedings associated with it. |
| Ukrainian | "Шлюб" (marriage) originated from the word "слюб", with "с" being an archaic prefix of unity or totality. "Шлюб" also means "defect" or "imperfection" when applied to manufactured goods. |
| Urdu | The Urdu word "شادی" (marriage) also has the alternate meaning of "happiness" or "joy". |
| Uzbek | The word "nikoh" also refers to the Islamic marriage ceremony. |
| Vietnamese | The word "kết hôn" can also mean to bind or unite, which reflects the traditional Vietnamese practice of marriage being an enduring bond. |
| Welsh | The Welsh word "priodas" derives from "priod," meaning "period," and "awdur," meaning "rule," signifying the lasting union under a shared covenant. |
| Xhosa | 'Umtshato' also means the bride's home village or homestead |
| Yiddish | Yiddish word חתונה (khatunah), or khaseneh, derives from the Hebrew word חתן (khatán), meaning "bridegroom." |
| Yoruba | The Yoruba word 'igbeyawo' also means 'a place of learning', alluding to the educational and preparatory aspect of marital life. |
| Zulu | "Umshado" is also used figuratively to refer to a strong bond or relationship between people or things, similar to the concept of "matrimony" in English. |
| English | The word marriage is derived from the Old French word 'mariage' and the Latin word 'maritagium', both meaning 'union' or 'alliance'. |