μόρος

Forms

μόρος (móros) m (genitive μόρου); second declension^[1] The Mycenaean word mo-ro-qa, a title or the name of a holder of an allotment, probably has it as its first part.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek μείρομαι (meíromai, “to receive as one's share”), an o-grade noun from the verb's root, like μοῖρα (moîra) and μέρος (méros).^[1][4][5] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *smer- (“to receive a share”), whose initial *sm- shows in the Homeric perfect ἔμμορε (émmore).^[4][6] Forms outside Greek are doubtful: Latin mereō (“to earn”) may be related, but its formation differs.^[4][6]

The Etymologicum Magnum already derives it from μείρω (meírō), comparing σπόρος (spóros) from σπείρω (speírō).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means a person's allotted fate, as in the line “it is my lot to perish here”, and the doom that overtakes someone, death.^[8][5][9]

Semantic evolution

The Homeric phrase ὑπὲρ μόρον “beyond fate” is said of those who add to their destined suffering by their own fault, and in the Odyssey it also means “beyond measure”.^[5][9] Hesiod's Theogony makes Moros a person, a child of Night, but tragedy never personifies him.^[5][3]

In lyric, tragedy and Ionic prose it is above all death.^[5][9] Herodotus always uses it of a violent death.^[5][9] Aeschylus uses it of ships for the death of their crews, and in lyric passages of tragedy it can mean a corpse.^[9][5] As in μοῖρα (moîra), the old sense “share” survives in a measure of land recorded in inscriptions from Locris and Mytilene.^[5][4]

Papyros lists it as an ancient and medieval word.^[3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for allotted fate and for death.^[8][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony names Moros among the children of Night.^[5][3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus uses it in the plural.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it only of a violent death.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus and Sophocles use it for a corpse.^[5]
• 5th century BC – An inscription from Locris uses it for a measure of land.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One's allotted fate, destiny; with an infinitive, it is one's lot to do or suffer something; ὑπὲρ μόρον, beyond what is fated, beyond measure.^[5][9][8]
2. Doom, death, especially a violent one.^[5][9]
3. (tragedy) A corpse.^[5]
4. A measure of land, in Locris and Mytilene.^[5][4]
5. (personified) Moros, Doom, a child of Night.^[5][9][3]

Word family

• κάμμορος (kámmoros)

Related words

• μείρομαι (meíromai)
• μοῖρα (moîra)
• μέρος (méros)
• μόριον (mórion)
• μόρσιμος (mórsimos)
• εἱμαρμένη (heimarménē)

Usage notes

The ancient lexica explain it as murder, death, destruction, toil, disease and “one's portion of life”, and some also as pain.^[10][11][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
3. ^ a b c d e Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
7. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
11. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
12. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck