Etymologically
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mortar

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmɔːtə/[1]
  • US: /ˈmoɹtɚ/[1]

mortar1 bowl; cannon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English morter, partly inherited from Old English mortere, borrowed from Latin mortārium (“a vessel for pounding; the material pounded in it”),[2][3][4][5][6] and partly reborrowed from Anglo-Norman and mortier, of the same Latin origin;[2][5][7] the English spelling was later brought into line with the Latin.[8][9] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford also see a share of Middle Low German mortēr.[8][7] The Latin noun is of uncertain origin:[10][11] Watkins and Barnhart derive it from an Indo-European root meaning to rub away or pound,[10][4][5] Klein from a participle Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tós (“rubbed, pounded”),[6] and Merriam-Webster compares Ancient Greek μαραίνω (maraínō, “to waste away”), relating it to smart.[3] The same Latin word gave Old High German mortāri and German Mörser.[6][12] The cannon is mortier, the same word, named for its squat shape like a pounding bowl.[5][10][8][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bowl of hard material in which substances are pounded with a pestle: early Old English, in the Cleopatra Glossary,[2] about 1000 in Barnhart and before the 12th century in Merriam-Webster.[5][3] The form morter is recorded about 1150, and mortar in 1381.[5] Anglo-Norman mortier had the same sense from the late 12th century.[13]

Semantic evolution

The pounding bowl was a tool of the apothecary and the cook,[2] and was used figuratively from the Wycliffite Bible on (a1382).[2] Like the Anglo-Norman word, Middle English mortar also named a bowl of wax or oil with a floating wick, used as a night light (a1398–1894).[2][13][3] From 1547 the word named a short, wide-bored piece of artillery that throws shells at a high angle,[2] first called a mortar-piece (1550s),[10][5] by comparison of its shape with the bowl;[10][11][12] it was later used of any device firing a projectile on a high trajectory, such as a firework or a lifeline (1669).[2] Johnson (1755) gave both the pounding vessel and the short cannon for bombs.[14] The verb to mortar, to fire mortar shells at, is recorded from 1944.[2][3] In 18th- and 19th-century slang the bowl, with its pestle, served as a sexual double entendre.[15]

Timeline

  • Old English – mortere, a pounding bowl.[2][5]
  • a1382 – figurative use.[2]
  • a1398 – a night light of wax or oil (obsolete).[2]
  • 1547 – a short cannon.[2]
  • 1550s – mortar-piece.[10][5]
  • 1669 – a device for firing fireworks or lifelines.[2]
  • 1944 – the verb, to attack with mortars.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A strong bowl in which substances are crushed or ground with a pestle: She ground the cardamom in a stone mortar.
  2. A short cannon or tube-shaped weapon that fires shells at a steep angle over a short range.
  3. A similar device for firing lifelines, fireworks and the like.

Verb

  1. To attack or hit with mortar shells.

Word family

  • mortarboard

mortar2 building material

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English morter, borrowed from Anglo-Norman morter and mortier (“builder's mortar; mixing bowl”),[2][10][5][3][7] partly also taken directly from Latin mortārium,[2][10] the same word as the pounding bowl, with the sense transferred from the vessel to the material prepared in it, as already in Latin.[2][10][7][6] Ayto and Cresswell explain the transfer by the grinding of the ingredients.[11][16] Dutch mortel and German Mörtel are from Latin or French.[10][6][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mixture of lime, sand and water used to bind stones or bricks: about 1250 in Barnhart and Etymonline,[5][10] the OED's first quotation from Floris and Blauncheflur (a1300).[2] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary records builder's mortier in Anglo-Norman from the second quarter of the 12th century.[13]

Semantic evolution

Figurative uses, of something that binds or holds together, are recorded from Langland's Piers Plowman (about 1400),[2][3] and the extended sense of plaster or any mortar-like substance from 1440.[2] From 1582 to 1798 the word could stand for building or masonry in general.[2] The verb, to plaster or join with mortar, is recorded from 1610, in a figurative passage by Donne.[2] The phrase bricks and mortar, for buildings as property, is listed by the Shorter Oxford.[7] In Scotland the word named a coarse red clay, and in Northamptonshire a mortar-spit was the board holding the mortar; in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to mortar meant to tramp mud about with dirty feet.[17][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – builder's mortar.[5][10]
  • c. 1400 – figurative, a binding force.[2]
  • 1440 – plaster or a similar substance.[2]
  • 1610 – the verb, to fix with mortar.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A mixture of cement or lime with sand and water, used to bond bricks or stones and to cover walls.
  2. Something that binds or holds things together.

Verb

  1. To fix, join or plaster with mortar.

Word family

  • mortarless

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 q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)