μόρον

Forms

μόρον (móron) n (genitive μόρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] Greek μόρον matches Old Armenian մոր (mor, “blackberry”), while Latin mōrum (“mulberry”) has a long vowel.^[2][3][4] Beekes and Frisk allow that the Latin and the Armenian words were both borrowed from Greek, so that all the forms would go back to μόρον.^[2][4] Frisk objects that the older sense, “blackberry”, makes borrowing less likely.^[2][4] Chantraine finds it hard to decide between an inherited word and parallel borrowings, and Babiniotis suggests a borrowing from a Mediterranean source.^[3][5] Wiktionary gives the traditional reconstruction *mórom (“mulberry, blackberry”), with Middle Irish merenn and Welsh merwydden.^[1] Chantraine finds a link with a root meaning “black” improbable.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Epicharmus and Aeschylus use it for the black mulberry, Aeschylus in the phrase “riper than mulberries”.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The Hippocratic writers use it for the blackberry, the fruit of the bramble (μόρον τοῦ βάτου).^[6][7] From it come μορέα (moréā) “mulberry tree” in Nicander and Galen and μόρινος “mulberry-coloured” in papyri, and it is the second member of plant names such as αἰγόμορον, another name for hemlock.^[2][3] Crossed with συκάμινον (sukáminon) it gave συκόμορον (sukómoron), the sycamore fig.^[4]

Latin mōrum passed into Germanic, as in Old High German mūrberi.^[2][4] Medieval Greek μούρο(ν) kept the word for the mulberry, and Modern Greek has μούρο (moúro), with μουριά (mouriá) “mulberry tree” from Hellenistic μορέα; the place name Μορέας has been explained from μορέα.^[8][9][5][3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of the mulberry, and the Hippocratic writers of the blackberry.^[6][7][10]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander has the derivative μορέα (moréa) for the mulberry tree.^[2][3][10]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it in the Materia medica.^[7][10]
• 1100–1669 – Medieval vernacular texts have μούρο (moúro) for the mulberry.^[8]
• Modern Greek – μούρο (moúro) continues it.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The black mulberry, fruit of the mulberry tree.^[6][1]
2. The blackberry, fruit of the bramble.^[6][1]

Related words

• μορέα (moréā)
• μόρινος (mórinos)
• μορόεις (moróeis)
• συκόμορον (sukómoron)
• Latin mōrum
• Old Armenian մոր (mor)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 g 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
4. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge