Etymologically
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moror

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɔ.rɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmɔː.ror][1]

Forms

moror (present infinitive morārī or morārier, perfect active morātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Ennius, Naevius and Pacuvius have the active morō.[2][3] The old infinitive morārier is also found.[1]

Etymology

It is formed from mora “delay”, or, as Schumacher proposed, continues an old iterative ⟨*morH-eye-⟩.[2][4][5][3] De Vaan derives mora from Proto-Italic *morH-ā- (“delay”), from Proto-Indo-European *morh₂-, and compares Old Irish maraid (“lasts, remains”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius, who uses the active form.[3][2] Plautus has cūr nōn vēnistī? – hic mē morātust, “why didn't you come?” – “this man held me up”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Transitively morārī is “to delay, hold up”, “to detain, keep back”, and “to hold the attention of”.[2][4][1] With a negative it means “not to care about, disregard” (Virgil: nec dōna moror, “I care nothing for gifts”), and in the legal formula nihil moror a prosecutor dropped a charge.[2] It also means “to hinder, obstruct” an action.[2][1] Intransitively it is “to delay, wait” (Plautus: ī, sequere illōs, nē morēre, “go, follow them, don't delay”), “to be slow in coming”, and “to stay, stop” somewhere.[2][4][1]

Döderlein contrasts manēre, to stay as opposed to going away, with morārī, to linger as an interruption of movement.[6] Church Latin glosses it “delay, abide, dwell, tarry, linger”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses the active morō.[3][2][8]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: hic mē morātust;[2][8] nē morēre.[2][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: quid sedēs, quid morāris?, “why do you sit there, why do you delay?”[2][8]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: nec dōna moror.[2][8]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar writes of someone who stopped nowhere in Macedonia.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To delay, hold up; to detain, keep back.[2][4][1][7]
  2. To hold the attention of.[2]
  3. nōn morārī, to disregard, not care about;[2][1] nihil moror, I drop the charge.[2][1]
  4. To hinder, obstruct.[2][1]
  5. To wait, delay, linger, tarry.[2][4][1][7]
  6. To stay, stop; to dwell.[2][1][7]

Word family

  • commoror
  • dēmoror
  • immoror
  • remoror

Usage notes

A separate verb mōror, with a long ō, “to be a fool”, from Ancient Greek μωρός (mōrós, “foolish”), occurs only in a pun of Nero's: Suetonius reports that he joked that Claudius had stopped morārī among men, lengthening the first syllable.[4][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de