Etymologically
Log in

μωρός

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 05:42. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /mɔː.rós/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /moˈros/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /moˈros/[1]

Forms

μωρός (mōrós) m (feminine μωρᾱ́, neuter μωρόν); first/second declension[1] Attic μῶρος, with the accent probably taken from the vocative μῶρε.[2][3][4]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3][5] It has long been compared with Sanskrit मूर (mūrá-, “dull, foolish”), with an ablaut ō : ū, but that ablaut is no longer accepted, and the Sanskrit word may rather mean “frail”.[2][3][1] Beekes and Frisk point out that words for “stupid” are prone to irregular changes and blends, which makes comparison hard.[2][3] Wiktionary mentions a possible link with Phrygian μουρον “stupid act”.[1]

It was borrowed as Latin mōrus (“foolish”).[2][3][6] Ancient writers derived it from μὴ ὁρᾶν “not to see”, which Pape dismisses.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first examples are in Simonides, of a foolish man's counsel, and in the Hippocratic writings, where it describes slack, sluggish nerves.[8][9][10]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy and comedy it is the ordinary word for a fool and for foolish talk or acts: Sophocles has “to think foolish things”, and Euripides τὸ μῶρον “folly”, which in his Hippolytus has the sense of sexual waywardness.[8][9] Of taste it meant flat or insipid (Diocles, Dioscorides), and Epicurus spoke of a “blind necessity”.[8][5][6]

The Septuagint gave it a religious sense, as in Jeremiah's “foolish and heartless people”.[8][11] The New Testament uses it of imprudent people in the parables of Matthew, and Paul speaks of “the foolishness of God” that is wiser than men; the meaning of the insult μωρέ in Matthew 5:22 has been disputed.[12][13][14] The verb μωραίνω (mōraínō) could mean “to lose its savour”, of salt.[14][2]

Medieval Greek used it for fools and for the mentally disabled, and the neuter μωρό(ν) came to mean “baby”, as in Modern Greek μωρό (moró).[15][6][3] The vocative μωρέ became an interjection, from which Modern Greek βρε (vre) comes, borrowed into Turkish and the Balkan languages.[1][6] Modern Greek μωρός (morós) itself is now a learned word.[16] English moron was made from the neuter in 1910.[17]

Timeline

  • 6th–5th century BC – Simonides calls an opponent's counsel “the counsel of a foolish man”.[8][12][10]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it for foolish thoughts and words.[8][9][10]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Diocles uses it of insipid taste.[8][10]
  • 1st century AD – the New Testament: imprudent people in Matthew's parables, and “the foolishness of God”.[12][18]
  • Medieval Greek – μωρός for a fool or a mentally disabled person.[15]
  • Modern Greek – μωρό “baby”; μωρός survives as a learned word.[6][16]
  • 1910 – English moron is coined from it.[17]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. dull, sluggish, of nerves; of wasps in winter.[8][5]
  2. Of persons, foolish, stupid.[8][9]
  3. Of words or acts, foolish; as a noun, τὸ μῶρον, folly, and in Euripides wantonness.[8][9]
  4. (Septuagint) Godless, without understanding of God.[8][11]
  5. Of taste, insipid, flat.[8][5]

Word family

  • μωραίνω (mōraínō)
  • μωρία (mōría)
  • μωρίζω (mōrízō)
  • μωρολογία (mōrología)

Usage notes

The proverb “more foolish than Morychus” (Sophron) was said of a great fool.[8][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
  5. ^ a b c d Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  7. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  12. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  13. ^ Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
  14. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  15. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  16. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  17. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  18. ^ Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark