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Etymology and origin of the Catalan word mort

mort1 death

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1175–1224 the Homilies d'Organyà
Inherited from
Latin mors via Old Catalan
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *mer-
Etymology tree of mort1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mors
Catalan mort
French mort
Italian morte
Romanian moarte
Spanish muerte
From the same root · mort1
Latin mortālis ← mors
Latin morticīnus ← mors
Latin mortifer ← mors

Pronunciation

  • Northern: [ˈmo̞rt][1]
  • Balearic, Central, Northwestern: [ˈmɔrt][1]
  • Valencia: [ˈmɔɾt][1]

Forms

mort f (uncountable)[1] The DCVB records the pronunciations [mɔ́ɾt], [mɔ̞́ɾt] and [mɔ́lt].[2]

Etymology

The word for death is inherited from Old Catalan mort, which is inherited from Latin mors (“death”), continued in its accusative ⟨mortem⟩.[2][3][4][1] It kept the feminine gender of the Latin noun.[3][1]

The same Latin word is French mort, Spanish muerte, Italian morte, Portuguese morte and Romanian moarte.[5][1]

The Latin noun belongs with the verb morior (“to die”); de Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic noun for death beside the verb.[6] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Italic *mortis and Proto-Indo-European *mértis (“death”), from the root *mer- (“to die”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The GDLC and Bruguera place the first record at the beginning of the written language, in the Homilies d'Organyà, which CICA dates between 1175 and 1224.[3][4][7] In Llull's Fèlix (1272) a rich merchant lies malalt a la mort, sick to the point of death.[8]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts use the word for the end of life, and also for the death of the soul: Llull contrasts bodily death with the spiritual death of the sinner.[9] Set phrases go back to the same period: a mort! “to death!”, the cry of the guards in Desclot's chronicle (1283), a la mort “to the utmost”, in Eiximenis, and bona mort, a Christian death.[8]

The DCVB adds the sense of killing, criminal or legal, Death personified, and the skeleton that represents it; in Mallorca mort is also the mantis shrimp.[2] Figurative uses are an unbearable nuisance and the ruin of something.[2][3] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 lists phrases such as pena de mort “death penalty” and ferit de mort “mortally wounded”.[10]

The learned adjective mortal, from Latin mortalis, is recorded with Llull in the 14th century.[4]

Timeline

  • 1175–1224 – the Homilies d'Organyà, the first record.[3][4][7]
  • 1272 – Llull's Fèlix: malalt a la mort.[8]
  • 1283 – Desclot's chronicle: the guards cry A mort! a mort!.[8]
  • 1381 – Eiximenis: death, “from which he knows he cannot flee”.[8]
  • 1932 – Fabra's dictionary defines the word as the cessation of life.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. death, the end of life: Va tenir una mort tranquil·la.[11][2][1]
  2. Killing, homicide, criminal or legal.[2][3]
  3. (often capitalised) The personification of death, and the skeleton with a scythe that represents it.[2][3]
  4. (figurative) Something extremely tiresome or unbearable.[3][2]
  5. (figurative) ruin, destruction: la mort del petit comerç.[3][2]
  6. de mala mort: shabby, miserable, little frequented.[11]
  7. (Mallorca) The mantis shrimp (Squilla mantis).[2]

mort2 dead

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1175–1224 the Homilies d'Organyà, as a past participle
Inherited from
Latin mortuus via Old Catalan
Ultimate origin
Latin mortuus
Etymology tree of mort2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mortuus
Catalan mort
Spanish muerto
From the same root · mort2
Latin mortuārium ← mortuus

Pronunciation

  • Northern: [ˈmo̞rt][1]
  • Balearic, Central, Northwestern: [ˈmɔrt][1]
  • Valencia: [ˈmɔɾt][1]

Forms

mort (feminine morta, masculine plural morts, feminine plural mortes)[1] The feminine is morta, the plurals morts and mortes.[1]

Etymology

The word for “dead” is inherited from Old Catalan mort, which is inherited from Latin mortuus (“dead”), the past participle of morior (“to die”).[2][3][4][1] In Catalan it is the past participle of morir; as in the other western Romance languages, and more firmly than in any of them, the old language also used the verb transitively for “to kill”, so that ⟨mort⟩ is “killed” too, already in the Homilies d'Organyà.[12][2]

The same Latin participle is French mort, Spanish muerto, Italian morto, Portuguese morto and Romanian mort.[13]

De Vaan reconstructs separate Proto-Italic adjectives for “dead” beside the verb, one of them with the same suffix as the Old Irish and Welsh words for “dead”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Homilies d'Organyà use the participle in the sense “killed”: a sinner who repents of sins he has committed against a man he has killed.[12] A document from the Conca de Tremp of 1242 has eren morts en lur poder “they had died in their power”.[12] The GDLC and Bruguera date the adjective to Jaume I's chronicle.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Llull uses the word as a participle, as an adjective “that has ceased to live” and as a noun, “a dead person”.[9] Eiximenis speaks of Christ coming to judge los vius e los morts “the living and the dead”.[8]

The DCVB records the figurative senses: lacking life or the capacity to produce, lacking liveliness, overcome by a feeling, and worn out.[2] It also lists technical senses: a bag of sobrassada paste, the hard insensitive part of a horse's hoof, a bundle of olives, the tank of an oil mill that collects the waste, and the anchor, buoy or ring to which boats are moored.[2] The DEIEC defines the masculine noun as a worthless thing, a useless person, and a weight tied to fishing gear or to a boat to keep it in place.[14]

Timeline

  • 1175–1224 – the Homilies d'Organyà use mort “killed”.[12][7]
  • 1242 – eren morts in a document from the Conca de Tremp.[12]
  • 1244–1274 – Jaume I's chronicle, the first record of the adjective in the GDLC.[3]
  • 1381 – Eiximenis: los vius e los morts.[8]
  • 1839 – Labèrnia lists mort as past participle of both morir and matar.[15]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. dead, no longer alive: Les vinyes eren mortes.[3][2][1]
  2. Of water, stagnant.[3]
  3. (hyperbolic) Overcome by a feeling: mort de gana “starving”, mort de por.[3][2]
  4. (hyperbolic) exhausted, worn out.[3][2]
  5. Lacking life, strength or brightness: uns colors morts.[3][2]

Noun

  1. A person who has died; the deceased.[3][1]
  2. A corpse, especially a human one.[3][2]
  3. (figurative) A worthless thing or useless person.[3][14]
  4. (colloquial) An unpleasant problem or task that someone has to take on.[1]
  5. (nautical) A mooring anchor or block, or a weight that keeps fishing gear or a boat in place.[2][14][1]

Word family

  • amortar
  • amortir
  • esmorteir
  • esmortir

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mort
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. mort
  4. ^ a b c d e f Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 612
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. mors
  6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. morior
  7. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. teu
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. mort
  9. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. mort
  10. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. mort
  11. ^ a b 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. mort
  12. ^ a b c d e 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
  13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. mortuus
  14. ^ a b c Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. mort
  15. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. mort

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Mort.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ca/mort. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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