mores

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mōrēs (“customs, manners, morals”),^[2][3][4] the plural of mōs (“custom, usage”).^{[2][5][6][7][8]} The Latin word had already come into English through Anglo-Norman and Old French as mours, used from about 1250 to 1662.^[2] The OED and Wiktionary also compare moeurs.^[2][1] Partridge calls the Latin noun of obscure origin.^[9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *m(e)h₁-ōs (“manner”), from *mh₁- (“to measure”), the sense being close to "measure", but allows other reconstructions.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares it with the Germanic family of mood.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Custom, practice: 1648, in a single rare use by N. Ward.^[2] In its modern sense, the shared customs of a group, it is recorded from 1898 in a Yale University catalogue,^[2] a year Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives,^[6] while Barnhart and Etymonline begin with W. G. Sumner's Folkways of 1907.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Isolated in the 17th century, the word took hold around 1900 as a term of sociology,^[2][7][11] for the customs of a group that are morally binding on its members and basic to its welfare.^[6] Partridge calls it a learned use for ethical folkways.^[9] In the 20th century, ecologists also used it for the shared behaviour of a group of animals, from 1911.^[2][8] Its use is not limited to whole societies: Merriam-Webster Unabridged quotes academic mores, and the Shorter Oxford sexual mores.^[6][8]

Timeline

• 1648 – custom, practice (obsolete and rare).^[2]
• 1898 – the shared habits and customs of a community.^[2][6] Dictionary.com dates this to 1905–10, and Barnhart and Etymonline to 1907.^[11][4][3]
• 1911 – in ecology, the behaviour of a group of animals of one kind.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) The customs and conventions that embody the basic moral values of a group or society: The novel mocks the mores of the Edwardian middle class.^{[7][6][8][11]}
2. (plural, zoology) The habits and behaviour of a group of animals of the same kind.^[8][2]

Related words

• moral
• morale
• morality
• morose
• mood
• moeurs

Usage notes

It takes plural agreement in its modern senses.^[2][7] Wiktionary records a nonstandard singular more, back-formed from it.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House