disc▪ CAD thinks Akk marru‑ ‘spade, shovel’ (cf. also bīt marri ‘land worded with a spade’) is a loan-word from Sum.
▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#1738, however, juxtapose Akk marru, Syr marr or maʔr ‘hoe, spade’, and Ar marr ‘iron spade’ and reconstruct Sem *marr‑ ‘hoe, spade; iron spade’. Given that there seem to be cognates also outside Sem in Eg mr ‘hoe’ (a.), ECh *mar-/ *mir-/ (> mara, miri) ‘hoe’ and HEC *morar- <‑ *marar‑ (> moraara‑ ‘hook of the plough’, with partial redupl., in 1 language), the authors find reasons to believe that all of these may go back to an AfrAs *mar‑ ‘hoe’ (n.), which in itself would be related to (#1739) AfrAs *mar‑ ‘to dig’ (> Sem *mur‑ [with secondary *‑u‑ ] ‘dig’: Akk marāru, and > WCh *mari‑ ‘to hoe, farm’: appearing as mār, mar, na mira in modern WCh languages).
▪ In contrast, Fraenkel1886 believed that marr was borrowed via Aram mrʔ, Syr marrā, from a late Grk márra ‘mattock, hoe’ (cf. also Lat marra ‘sort of hoe for tearing up weeds, a weeding-hook’, found in Plinius, C1 – FALS1879).