Other forms: marbles
Marble is a hard stone with coloured veins running through it, used for statues and grand buildings. White marble, a marble floor, carved from marble.
It is limestone changed by heat and pressure, which is where the veins come from. Carrara marble from Italy is the classic sculptor's stone. A marble is also a small glass ball children play with, and the game is marbles — which gives lose your marbles, meaning to lose your mind. Note marbled, describing meat with fat running through it in the same pattern, and the Elgin Marbles, which are sculptures rather than stone generally.
1nounmarbleA hard veined stone used for statues and buildings.
“The whole entrance hall is marble and freezing in winter.”
2nounsmallA small glass ball used in a children's game.
“He found a jar of marbles under the stairs.”
marble is a stone, or a small glass ball.
Greek marmaros meant a shining stone, from a verb meaning to sparkle. The r changed to l in French, which is why English says marble where Latin says marmor — and why marmoreal, the literary adjective, keeps the older shape.
Ancient Greek
μάρμαρος
Latin
marmor
Old French
marbre
Middle English
marble
English, today
marble
Built from
Middle English marble, marbre; from Anglo-Norman - and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος, perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (“gleaming”). The forms from French marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA