Unlike mercurial of last week, martial is a word I use plenty–I imagine we all do. And I even knew where this one came from, LOL.
Martial means “warlike; pertaining to war” and for good reason–it comes from the Roman god Mars, the god of war. What I didn’t realize was that much like jovial and mercurial, this word wasn’t developed as a general adjective for those like Mars, it was an astrological term, given to those born under the sign of Mars, who were thought to have spirits more prone to fighting and exhibiting qualities of a warrior.
Martial arts, as a term to describe the fighting techniques of Japan and the surrounding areas, was coined in 1909.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.