"M" Word Origins

moratorium

New Latin

From New Latin moratorium, from Latin moror, "to delay," from mora, "delay."

moray

Ancient Greek

From Portuguese moreia, from Latin murēna, "sea eel," from Ancient Greek smúraina.

morayshire

Origin

From Moray + -shire.

morbid

Latin

From Latin morbidus, "diseased," from morbus, "sickness," ultimately related to the root for "to die."

morbidezza

Origin

Borrowed from Italian morbidezza.

morbidity

Latin

From Latin morbidus 'diseased', from morbus 'disease'.

morbidly

Origin

From morbid + -ly.

mordant

Origin

From French mordant, from Latin mordeō. Doublet of mordent.

Mordecai

Hebrew

Borrowed from Hebrew מָרְדֳּכַי (mordocháy).

Mordor

Origin

From Mordor, the dark, dangerous realm ruled by Sauron in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories. Tolkien built the name in his invented Sindarin language from words meaning "dark" and "land."

Mordred

Latin

An alteration of Modred, ultimately from Latin Moderatus by way of Proto-Brythonic and Old Welsh forms.

more

Old English

From Old English māra, "more," related to Dutch meer and German mehr.

moreen

Origin

Compare mohair.

morefold

Origin

From more + -fold. Compare manifold, West Frisian mearfâld (“plural”), Dutch meervoud (“plural”), German Low German mehrfolig (“multiple, plural, repeated”).

Morehouse

Origin

A variant of Moorhouse.

morel

French

Borrowed from French morille, ultimately from a Germanic word meaning "root" — the same root that gives dialectal English "more" for a plant root.

Morell

Old French

As an English surname, from the personal name Morel, a diminutive of Old French more ("dark"); the Canadian place is named after French settler Jean Francois Morel.

morello

Italian

Probably from morel, altered with an Italian-style ending, possibly influenced by Italian morello, "dark-coloured."

Moreno

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Moreno.

moreover

Middle English

From Middle English more + over, literally "more besides."

mores

Latin

From Latin mores, "customs, character," the plural of mos.

moresome

Origin

From more + -some, to follow on from threesome, foursome, etc.

morfound

Origin

From Middle English morfounden, morefounden (“to take cold”), from Middle French morfondre (“to chill, to cool”), from Franco-Provençal mor, more (“snout”) + Middle French fondre (“to melt”), where the first part comes from Vulgar Latin *murrum (“muzzle, snout”), and the second from Latin fundere. Cognate with French morfondre. The noun is inherited from Middle English mareffownd, mareffownde, likely from the Middle English morfounden, morefounden (“to take cold”).

morgan

Origin

Both senses honour real people named Morgan — the genetics unit after biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan, and the horse breed after its original owner, Justin Morgan.

Morgen

German

Borrowed from Dutch and German morgen, literally "morning" — originally the amount of land a team of oxen could plough in one morning.

morgenstern

German

Borrowed from German Morgenstern, literally "morning star," a poetic name for the spiked weapon.

morgue

French

From French morgue. The newspaper sense grew out of the mortuary sense, by way of an old meaning "a place where things sit unclaimed and unused."

Mori

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 森 (Mori) or 毛利 (Mōri).

Moriarty

Irish

From Irish Ó Muircheartaigh ("descendant of Muircheartach"), from muir ("sea") and ceardaí ("craftsman").

moribund

Origin

From Latin moribundus (“dying”).

moringa

Origin

Borrowed from translingual Moringa, probably from Malayalam മുരിങ്ങ (muriṅṅa).

morita

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 森田 (Morita).

Morley

Old English

From Old English mor ("moor") and leah ("wood, clearing").

Mormon

Origin · 1830

Named after Mormon, the prophet said to have compiled the Book of Mormon, the scripture published by Joseph Smith in 1830.

morn

Old English

From Old English morgen, the same root that gave us "morning" and "morrow."

morning

Middle English

From Middle English morwenynge, built from morwen ("morrow") plus the -ing ending.

Moro

Spanish

From Spanish moro ("Moor"), applied by Spanish colonizers to Muslim Filipinos; the same root as the English word "Moor."

Moroccan

Origin

Formed from "Morocco" plus the suffix "-an."

Morocco

Origin

Named after the country of Morocco, where this leather-making technique was historically associated.

moron

Greek · 1910

Coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard from Greek mōrós ("foolish, dull"); it was originally a clinical classification before becoming a general insult.

moronic

Origin

From "moron" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ic."

moronicity

Origin

From moron + -icity or moronic + -ity.

moronicness

Origin

From moronic + -ness.

morose

Latin

From Latin morosus ("fussy, self-willed, peevish"), related to mos ("custom, habit, will").

morph

Greek · 1980

A shortened, back-formed version of "morpheme," ultimately from Greek morphē ("form, shape"); the verb sense arose from computer animation in the 1980s-90s.

Morpheus

Latin

From Latin Morpheus, from Greek morphē ("form, shape") — a reference to his ability to take on any human shape in dreams; the word "morphine" was later named after him because of its dream-inducing, sedative effects.

morphew

Origin

From Medieval Latin morphea, perhaps from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”). Doublet of morphea.

morphine

Origin

Named after Morpheus, the Roman god of dreams, because of the drug's powerful sedative and dream-inducing effects.