mooring

Etymology

It is formed from English moor + -ing, from the verb meaning to make a ship fast,^[2][3][4] first recorded as Middle English moring.^[5][6] The OED takes the verb either from an unrecorded Old English verb related to the first element of Old English mǣrelsrāp (“mooring-rope”) and cognate with coastal Middle Dutch māren (“to moor a vessel”), or directly from that Middle Dutch verb, borrowed before ā became ō in early Middle English.^[2] Etymonline gives the same two explanations, tracing the verb to Proto-West Germanic *mairojan,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Old High German marawen (“to tie together”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of securing a ship in a particular place: 1378–81, in accounts edited in Sandahl's Middle English Sea Terms,^[2][7] early 15th century in Etymonline.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary's quotations, from 1420 and 1423, are naval accounts of cords bought for mooring.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verbal noun moved from the act to the things and places used for it.^[2][3] From 1600, in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, the plural moorings meant the ropes, chains and cables that hold a vessel,^[2] and the singular followed in 1681.^[2] From 1649 the word also meant a place in a river or harbour where a vessel may be moored, often in the plural;^[2][7] Etymonline dates this sense to 1775.^[3] A figurative use of moorings, that by which anything is held in place, is recorded by 1851,^[3] and airships too have had moorings since 1934.^[2]

Timeline

• 1378–81 – the action of mooring a vessel.^[2][7]
• 1600 – in the plural, the ropes or chains by which a vessel is moored.^[2]
• 1649 – a place where a vessel may be moored.^[2][7]
• 1681 – in the singular, a rope, chain or anchor for mooring.^[2]
• 1851 – figurative, that which holds something in place.^[3]
• 1934 – the mooring of an airship.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of making a boat or aircraft fast with lines, chains or anchors.^[5][2]
2. A place where a boat can be moored, or a fixed object to which it is tied: The harbour has moorings for two hundred yachts.^[5][2][8]
3. Often in the plural: the ropes, chains or anchors that hold a vessel in place.^[5][2][4]
4. In the plural, figuratively: the beliefs, habits or ties that keep a person steady: After the move he felt he had lost his moorings.^[5][3]

Word family

• mooring buoy

Related words

• moorage
• marline

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins