Thanks. It seems that I hadn't looked at good enough sources - the quick look I'd made took it back as far as Roman marriage and then went with "etymology uncertain" for further back, speculating a connection with husbands. How certain is the etymology back from Roman marriage to Roman agriculture? It makes sense, but how solid is the evidence? This is your thing, so I'm assuming you know.
Its as solid as these things can be and subject to revision, the Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg made the comment that the term
Maritare was broadly used in Vulgar Latin (not unlike Marry is in modern English) and that the earliest usages of the word (or rather
Maritus and it's derivatives related to Agriculture (Husbandry) and it was later that we see it supersede the traditional words such as Conibium in reference to Human Social and Legal Unions.
If you check the Latin Lexicon, you will find confirmation of this:
http://latinlexicon.org/definition.php?p1=2034742
Here are the relevant parts:
— Transf. Of animals and plants. Pass.: maritari, to be coupled, i. e. to have a mate: tunc dicuntur catulire, id est ostendere, se velle maritari, Varr. R. R. 2, 10, 11.
— Of plants, to wed, i. e. to tie or fasten to another tree: adultā vitium propagine Altas maritat populos, Hor. Epod. 2, 10: ulmi vitibus maritantur, Col. 11, 2, 79; 4, 2, 1: maritandae arbores, id. 4, 1, 6; cf. id. 5, 6, 18.
and this is true across the various forms of the term...
The issue we have is that over the millennia the root has been attributed (and quite correctly) to various other words and attributed to their creation or evolution. Earlier derivatives (as shown above) such as
Maritus (Husband, Lover, Nuptial or even Married) and it's root
Mas (of the male sex).
Maritus forms with Conibium to give us Nuptials, as a variant of
Conubialis which in turn is derived from
Com +
Nubere (together + to wed). We also have the word Conjugal, again derived from the earlier word for marriage and effectively means to join together with a spouse.
There are loads of examples of how the etymology of a word as old and widespread and broadly attributed to various definitions as Marriage has come into modern usage, this is why most etymology guides will give the most recent derivations and stop at only mentioning the most commonly attributed Latin Root (common to the most languages, rather than the most commonly known, if you get my meaning), rather than delving into the myriad of branches that have developed over the centuries or going back into the etymology of the Latin Root itself.
Effectively it means that you cannot use the definition of marriage as always being between a Man and Woman as a justification to oppose same sex marriage, as the word Marriage has historically such a broad and varied etymology.
