mœurs

Forms

mœurs f pl (plural only)^[1] Old French murs (about 1112), mors (about 1155) and meurs (13th century); mœurs from the 14th century.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had moers, mours and morz.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mōrēs (“ways, character, morals”), the plural of mōs.^[5][6][7][1] In Latin the noun was a way of acting fixed by custom rather than by law, and also meant “character”; through written Latin the word owes part of its senses to Ancient Greek ἦθος (êthos).^[6][7][8] The Latin noun was masculine;^[6][7] French made it feminine, though it is found as a masculine again in the 16th century.^[6][7]

Among the Romance languages it passed only into French and Old Occitan mors.^[6][8] Rey notes that the Latin word may be Indo-European but has a counterpart only in Irish.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears early in the 12th century in Benedeit's Voyage of Saint Brendan, meaning a way of behaving, conduct judged as good or bad: Murs out bons cil ermite e sainte vitte “those hermits had good ways and a holy life”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was conduct seen in the light of good and evil, in bones mors (1155) and mals murs (about 1175), whence bonnes and mauvaises mœurs;^[5][6] avoir des mœurs meant “to have good morals” from 1718.^[5][6] A more neutral sense, the habits and way of life of a group, appears about 1265 in les meurs et les us, was applied to whole peoples from 1549 and, in classical usage, to good manners (1688).^[5][6]

From the 16th century the word was used of the habits of animal species, and in 18th-century criticism of what suits the characters, times and places shown in a literary work (1701).^[6] Police des mœurs (1890), the vice squad dealing with prostitution, gave the elliptical les mœurs (1876).^[6] English borrowed the word as moeurs by 1922.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1112 – Murs appears in the Voyage of Saint Brendan.^[2][5]
• 1155 – Wace writes bones mors “good morals”.^[5][6]
• c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini uses les meurs et les us for customs and ways of life.^[5]
• 14th century – The spelling mœurs appears.^[2][3]
• 1549 – Du Bellay applies it to the customs of a people.^[5]
• 1688 – La Bruyère uses sans mœurs “without manners”.^[5][6]
• 1718 – The Académie records avoir des mœurs “to have good morals”.^[5]
• 1876 – Les mœurs for the vice police is found in Huysmans.^[6]
• 1890 – Police des mœurs is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Habits of a society or a person judged in relation to good and evil, morals: bonnes mœurs, mauvaises mœurs.^[8][10]
2. (law) Bonnes mœurs: the rules imposed by social morality, as in outrage aux bonnes mœurs.^[8][10]
3. Police des mœurs, or les Mœurs: the vice squad.^[10][11][1]
4. The customs and way of life of a people, a society or an age: autres temps, autres mœurs.^[11][10][1]
5. The habits of an animal species: les mœurs des fourmis.^[11]
6. Comédie de mœurs, peinture de mœurs: a work describing the ways of a society.^[10]

Related words

• moral
• morose
• morigéner
• Latin mōs

Usage notes

The final -s was traditionally silent; the pronunciation /mœʁs/, frowned on in careful speech but now common, comes from the spelling, helped by the word's lasting contact with written Latin.^[6][7][12] The word is used only in the plural.^[1][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette