moray

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Portuguese moréia,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a Portuguese word recorded from 1519,^[2] from Latin mūraena, also mūrēna (“a kind of eel, moray”),^[2][7][8] from Ancient Greek μύραινα (múraina), also σμύραινα (smúraina).^[2][8][9] Etymonline and Klein derive the Greek word from σμῦρος (smûros, “sea eel”), also μῦρος (mûros),^[7][8] and Klein, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the OED connect it, perhaps, with σμύρις (smúris, “emery powder”) and with smear.^[8][3][2] Beekes notes that this does not explain the long vowel in Greek, and takes it as a Pre-Greek word, with a suffix and a prothetic s- that are common in such words.^[9] Partridge calls the Greek word of obscure origin.^[10] The Latin word is also the source of Old French murene.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large predatory eel-like fish of warm coastal waters: 1624, in John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to the 1620s,^[7] and Dictionary.com to 1615–25, as an Americanism.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its single sense, now usually in the fuller form moray eel.^[2][4][3] In Latin mūraena meant a sea eel, and by confusion also a lamprey;^[2][7] the related English word muraena was used of an eel-like fish mentioned by ancient writers before it became the genus name of the moray.^[2][4] Names of particular species are formed with it, such as green moray and leopard moray.^[1]

Timeline

• 1624 – an eel-like fish of the family Muraenidae.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many predatory, often brightly patterned eels of the family Muraenidae, living in warm and tropical coastal waters, with strong sharp teeth and no pectoral fins; also called moray eel: A moray watched the divers from a crack in the reef.^[3][6][2]

Related words

• muraena

Usage notes

The OED gives British pronunciations with the stress on either syllable, /ˈmɒreɪ/ or /mɒˈreɪ/.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House