μορμώ

Forms

μορμώ (mormṓ) ^[1] Genitive μορμοῦς (mormoûs), uncontracted μορμόος (mormóos); the other cases mostly from a stem μορμόν- (mormón-): μορμόνα (mormóna), μορμόνος (mormónos).^[2][3][4] Hesychius records the distorted variants Μομβρώ (Mombrṓ) and Μομμώ (Mommṓ).^[2][4]

Etymology

It is a popular, expressive word used to frighten children, and may rest on an onomatopoeia.^[2] Frisk takes it, like Γοργώ (Gorgṓ), for a reduplicated formation, first used as a cry to cause fright, perhaps in children's speech; the cry became a demon, Μορμώ, and the demon a common noun.^[4] He asks whether μορμύρω (mormúrō, “to roar, boil”) is related.^[4]

Chantraine, Frisk and LSJ compare Latin formīdō (“terror; a scarecrow”), whose ⟨f-⟩ would come from ⟨m-⟩ by the same dissimilation as in formīca (“ant”) beside μύρμηξ (múrmēx).^[2][4][3] Pokorny lists both under Proto-Indo-European *mormo- (“fear, terror”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first certain passages are in Aristophanes, whose characters call Lamachus' helmet and crest a bogey: ἀπένεγκέ μου τὴν μορμόνα “take your bogey away from me”.^[3][7] An earlier instance in Erinna is doubtful.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Μορμώ was a female monster that nurses used to frighten children, and in general any bugbear: Xenophon says that soldiers feared the peltasts as children fear such bogeys.^[3][2] The word was also an exclamation to frighten children, “boo!”: in Theocritus a mother warns her child μορμώ, δάκνει ἵππος “boo, the horse bites!”.^[3][2] In Aristophanes' Knights μορμὼ τοῦ θράσους is a scornful “a fig for his boldness!”.^[3][8]

Lucian still uses it for the bogey of the nursery.^[3][9] Derivatives such as μορμολύττομαι (mormolúttomai, “to frighten with a bogey”) and μορμολυκεῖον (mormolukeîon, “a bugbear, mask”) carried the idea further.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a bugbear and as a scornful exclamation.^[3][7][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon compares men who fear peltasts to children afraid of bogeys.^[3][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus has a mother use it as a cry to frighten her child.^[3][10]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian names the she-monster that nurses invoked.^[3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female monster used to frighten children; Μορμώ as a figure.^[3][9]
2. A bugbear, bogey.^[3][11]
3. (interjection) A cry to frighten children: boo!; in scorn, a fig for …!^[3][9]

Word family

• μορμωτός (mormōtós)
• μορμύσσομαι (mormússomai)
• μορμολύττομαι (mormolúttomai)
• μορμολυκεῖον (mormolukeîon)

Related words

• Latin formīdō

Usage notes

Photius gives μορμόφοβος (mormóphobos) as an equivalent.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
12. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
13. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica