moro

Forms

moro m (plural moros, feminine mora, feminine plural moras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish moro, inherited from Latin Maurus (“Moor, inhabitant of Mauretania”).^[2][3][4][1] The same word is Portuguese mouro, Asturian moru, Catalan moro and Italian moro, and the Basque word is mairu “Moor; cruel, unbending man”.^[2][5][6]

The DLE and Wiktionary take the Latin name from Ancient Greek Μαῦρος (Maûros), properly “dark”, after the colour of the Moors' skin.^[4][1] The lexicographers of Greek record the adjective, accented maurós, as a variant of ἀμαυρός (amaurós).^[7][8] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente instead consider the Latin word isolated and probably borrowed from the Carthaginians, who dealt with the Berbers before the Romans and would have called them by a word meaning “westerners”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in a charter of 1091, and documents of Huesca of 1097–1103 already use it.^[2][3][10] The Cantar de mio Cid uses it constantly, often without the article in the collective moros and in the pair moros e christianos.^[11] The Siete Partidas define the Moors as a people who believe that Muhammad was a prophet and messenger of God.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Because moro was applied in Spain to all Muslims, it came to mean “gentile, pagan, unbaptized”: Berceo calls the Romans of antiquity moros as opposed to the Jews, and a child who has not yet been baptized is still popularly called moro.^[2][12][4]

After the dark complexion of the Mauretanians, Latin maurus was also applied to black or dark horses, as Isidore records.^[2] A Mozarabic botanist of about 1100 calls the neguilla sémine máuro, and in the 13th century black cows were called moras.^[2] The horse sense survives across Spain and the Americas with local shades: black lightly flecked with white in the Río de la Plata, dark chestnut mixed with white in Bogotá, white with a dark sheen in Cuba, dapple grey in Honduras.^[2][13][14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades records vino moro, unwatered wine, as opposed to watered wine, called cristiano because it has been “baptized”, and the festival of moros y cristianos, a mock battle in costume.^[15] Covarrubias gives the proverb A moro muerto gran lançada “a great lance-thrust at a dead Moor”, mocking those who are brave when the danger is past.^[16][17] The phrase hay moros en la costa, a warning that someone unwelcome is near, goes back to the alarms raised by raids on the Levantine coasts.^[18]

The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century extended the word to the Muslims of other regions, such as those of Spain's Asian provinces.^[19] Today the DLE marks as colloquial and offensive the Spanish use for a jealous, possessive man, and Wiktionary notes that in Spain the word is now usually derogatory when used for a Moroccan, an Arab or a Muslim.^[4][1] In the Americas moros y cristianos also names a dish of beans and rice (Mexico), and moro a dish of rice with beans in the Dominican Republic.^[13][20]

Timeline

• 1091 – first record, in a charter.^[2][3]
• 1097–1103 – documents of Huesca.^[10]
• c. 1100 – a Mozarabic botanist uses máuro “black” in a plant name.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (verse 852 and elsewhere).^[11]
• 13th century – Berceo applies moros to the Roman soldiers of the Passion and to gentiles.^[12][2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of la ley de los moros.^[21]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives the proverb A moro muerto gran lançada.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records vino moro and moros y cristianos.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin maurus.^[23]

Meanings

Adjective

1. From the part of North Africa facing Spain; also as a noun, a Moor.^[4][1]
2. Of or relating to that part of Africa or to the Moors.^[4]
3. Muslim; also as a noun.^[4] In Spain, used for a Moroccan, an Arab or a Muslim, it is now usually derogatory.^[4][1]
4. (historical) Of the Muslims who lived in Spain from the 8th to the 15th century, or of Muslim Spain; also as a noun.^[4][1]
5. Of the Muslims of Mindanao and other islands of the Philippines; mostly as a noun.^[4][1]
6. Of a horse or mare: black, with a white star on the forehead and one or two white feet.^[4][17]
7. (Latin America) Of a horse or other animal: with black and white hairs mixed, dark grey or dapple; the exact shade varies by country.^[24][2]
8. (colloquial) Of wine: not watered down.^[4]
9. (colloquial) Of a person, especially a child: not yet baptized.^[4][17]
10. (Spain, colloquial, offensive) Of a man: jealous and possessive, trying to dominate his partner; also as a noun.^[4][17]
11. (Cuba) Of a mulatto person: with dark skin, straight black hair and fine features.^[4][24]

Noun

1. (Dominican Republic) A dish of rice cooked with beans or pigeon peas.^[20][24]

Word family

• moreno
• morería
• morillo
• morisco
• morisma
• moruno
• morisqueta

Related words

• Portuguese mouro
• Latin Maurus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 151
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. moro
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. moro
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. moru
7. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. moro
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. moro
11. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 358
12. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 506
13. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 300
14. ^ Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo, p. 59
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 609
16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1149
17. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. moro
18. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 766
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 521
20. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. moro
21. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. moro
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. moro
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 719
24. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. moro