It also has Arabic origin meaning "to deviate" or "to err", in the sense that they deviated from their newly adopted faith by secretly continuing to practice Judaism. A third origin has been cited from Galician-Portuguese, where marrar means "to force" and marrano means "forced one", indicating the compulsory nature of the religious conversions. José Meir Estrugo Hazán writes in his book Los SefardíesJosé Meir Estrugo Hazán, Los Sefardíes (The Sephardim), that "marrano" is the term the Spanish Jews prefer.
It also has Arabic origin meaning "to deviate" or "to err", in the sense that they deviated from their newly adopted faith by secretly continuing to practice Judaism. A third origin has been cited from Galician-Portuguese where marrar means "to force" and marrano means "forced one", indicating the compulsory nature of the religious conversions. José Meir Estrugo Hazán writes in his book Los SefardíesJosé Meir Estrugo Hazán, Los Sefardíes (The Sephardim), that "marrano" is the term the Spanish Jews prefer