mare.

Most likely inherited from Latin maiōrem, accusative singular of Latin maior, through a Common Romanian intermediate *maure, akin to Dalmatian maur. The shift from /au/ to /a/ is caused by syncope. Compare Aromanian mari, Megleno-Romanian mari, and the aforementioned Dalmatian maur. See also Portuguese mor, Logudorese mere and Campidanese meri. This would make the word a doublet of maior and major. For other examples of this syncope in particular, see Romanian căta, regional variant of Romanian căuta, Sardinian laru (dialectal), from Latin laurus; Friulian fari, from Latin faber (unlike Ladin faure); et cetera. An alternative, less likely theory proposes a derivation from Latin marem (“male”), with a semantic shift from "male" to "large", on an idiomatic basis (i.e. assuming that the expression "s-a făcut mare", meaning "[3rd-pers. sg.] grew up" [literally "made themselves big"] initially referred exclusively to boys becoming men, and that it shifted over time to refer more broadly to physical growth, and by extension, being large). Other theories include a derivation from its homonym mare (meaning sea), and a substrate origin (either Proto-Albanian or Thraco-Dacian).

From Latin mare, from Proto-Italic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.