morir

Forms

morir (first-person singular present moro, first-person singular preterite morí, past participle mort); root stress: (Northern) /o̞/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /ɔ/^[1] Besides the common present subjunctive muira, Old Roussillon has mura (1303–1398) and the indicative mur; the sermons of Vincent Ferrer have muyro.^[2] Modern analogical first persons are Valencian muic, central moro and Menorcan jo mor.^[2] The DCVB records [muɾí], [moɾí] and the Valencian [moɾíɾ].^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan morir, which is inherited from Latin morior (“to die”), in the Vulgar Latin active form ⟨morire⟩ that replaced the classical deponent infinitive ⟨mori⟩.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Latin already had an archaic fourth-conjugation infinitive ⟨moriri⟩ in Ennius, Plautus and Ovid, and the active ⟨morire⟩ appears in capitularies of the Frankish kings and in Venantius Fortunatus.^[6]

The same Vulgar Latin form is Occitan morir, Spanish morir, Italian morire, Old French morir and Romanian muri; Portuguese morrer and Sardinian morrere come from ⟨morere⟩, a third-conjugation form closer to the classical verb.^[6][1]

The Latin verb comes from *moriōr, from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥yétor, from the root *mer- (“to die”).^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines dates the verb to the origins of the language and finds it often in the documents of the 12th and 13th centuries.^[2] A 12th-century document from the Alt Cardener says that of the clergy of a church only one is left, e aquel mor-i de fam, "and he is dying of hunger there".^[2] The DCVB's first quotation is from the Homilies d'Organyà.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The pronominal morir-se is no modern colloquialism: a document from Gósol of 1250 has mories, and the Vides de sants rosselloneses use it.^[2] Llull writes that a man begins to die as soon as he is born.^[2]

The figurative senses grew from the idea of coming to an end: in Metge (1381) no vice dies, and in Ausiàs March anger does not die but lies sick.^[8] The hyperbole of dying of hunger or of desire is in the Curial e Güelfa of about 1440, and Roig uses the infinitive as a noun, son morir, "his death".^[8] In dialects a stream or tributary mor where it runs out or joins a river.^[2] Martí Gadea's dictionary of 1891 adds a fire or light going out and a river flowing into another or into the sea.^[9] Fabra and the DIEC2 keep the sense of ceasing and of a road or river ending its course.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 12th century – mor-i de fam in a document from the Alt Cardener.^[2]
• Late 12th century – the Homilies d'Organyà.^[3]
• 1242 – que-m leissàs morir in a document from the Conca de Tremp.^[2]
• 1250 – the pronominal mories in a document from Gósol.^[2]
• 1381 – Metge uses the verb of a vice that never dies.^[8]
• 1440 – morir de fam in the Curial e Güelfa.^[8]
• 1460 – Roig's noun son morir.^[8]
• 1891 – Martí Gadea's dictionary records rivers that die in the sea.^[9]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To die, to stop living: Va morir als noranta anys.^[11][5]
2. (pronominal, morir-se) To die of an inner process, such as illness or old age; of plants, to wither: Els rosers se’ns moren.^[11]
3. (pronominal, hyperbolic) To be intensely affected by something: morir-se de set, morir-se de riure.^[11][5]
4. (figurative) To cease to be or to work: customs that die out.^[11][5]
5. (figurative) Of a road or river, to end its course: El camí mor al coll.^[11][3]

Word family

• morent
• moridor
• mort
• premorir

Related words

• mortal
• mortalla
• amortir
• esmorteir
• Latin morior
• Spanish morir

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include morir com mosques, "to die like flies", and morir en olor de santedat; the saying morta la bèstia, mort el verí means that the effect goes with its cause.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 789
3. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. morir
4. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 612
5. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. morir
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 149
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. morir
9. ^ a b Martí Gadea, Joaquim (1891), Novísimo diccionario general valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. morir
10. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. morir
11. ^ a b c d e f g Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. morir