moral

Forms

moral adj^[1][2]

• morale, moraul^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mōrālis (“relating to manners and conduct”), a learned word.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin adjective was formed by Cicero from mōs (“custom, manner”) and -ālis to render Ancient Greek ἠθικός (ēthikós).^[8][9] The FEW treats the adjective under the Latin adjective and the noun naming Gregory's commentary under its neuter plural, mōrālia.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1212, is the noun: in Angier's Vie de saint Grégoire the books of Gregory the Great are listed as Li Dialoge et li Moral “the Dialogues and the Moralia”, the Moralia being his commentary on Job.^[4][2] The DHLF also dates the word to 1212 and the Moralia in Job.^[6]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective the word first belonged to philosophy, in vertu morale, a virtue with the light of reason as its principle, in Brunetto Latini's Tresor of 1270.^[4][6] Godefroy prints it in the sense of what concerns or conforms to good conduct, as in Il est si bon et si moral “he is so good and so moral”.^[12] Oresme used it about 1370 for what conforms to morals, and philosophie morele appears in 1403.^[4]

The Middle French adjective covered manners, social behaviour and the rules of conduct.^[13] The modern word moral gained the sense of what rests on opinion rather than facts in 1694 and became a noun in the 18th century, le moral for the state of mind and morale from 1823.^[4]

Timeline

• 1212 – Li Moral, Gregory's Moralia in Job, in Angier's Vie de saint Grégoire.^[4][2]
• c. 1225 – the adverb moralement.^[5]
• 1270 – vertu morale in Brunetto Latini's Tresor.^[4]
• 1282 – in a text written at Acre.^[10][14]
• 1370–1372 – “conforming to morals” in Oresme's Ethiques.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. moral, concerning manners and conduct; ethical.^[1][2]
2. of the branch of study that sets the rules of conduct (vertu morale, science moral).^[2][4][12]
3. conforming to good conduct, virtuous.^[12]

Noun

1. the Moralia, Gregory the Great's commentary on the Book of Job.^[2][4]
2. morality, correct conduct.^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word from 1212, in the noun naming the Moralia, and records the adjective for the study of correct conduct and the noun for morality itself.^[2] It gives the spelling morale and refers to the Middle English adjective in the MED.^[2]

Descendants

• Middle French moral (→ French moral)^[13][4]

Usage notes

The word is headed moral in Tobler–Lommatzsch, the AND and the DMF, moral1 and moral2 in the DEAF.^{[1][2][13][10]} Middle French also had an adjective moral “like a mulberry”, used of haemorrhoids, which the FEW puts under Latin mōrum.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 6:249
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. moral
3. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 457
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. moral
7. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 667
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
10. ^ a b c Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. moral1
11. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. moral2
12. ^ a b c Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 10:173
13. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. moral
14. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. JAntRectD