Late Middle English (in an earlier sense). From post-classical Latin Maran Atha (Vetus Latina), or Hellenistic Greek μαρὰν ἀθά (New Testament; also μαρὰν ἀθᾶ; now emended to μαράνα θά), representing an Aramaic phrase occurring in 1 Corinthians 16:22 and usually left untranslated, its exact interpretation being variously understood by scholars and translators. Current scholarship favours the interpretation māranā ṯā ‘Come, O Lord!’, the most widely advocated alternative being māran 'ăṯā ‘Our Lord has come’. It has also often erroneously been regarded as composing with the word that precedes it in the biblical text a formula of imprecation, anathema maranatha, hence its substantive use as an abbreviation of this formula.