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morosus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word morosus

morosus1 hard to please, peevish

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin mōs
Etymology tree of morosus1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mōs
Latin mōrōsus
From the same root · morosus1
Latin mōrālis ← mōs
Latin mōrigerus ← mōs

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [moːˈroː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [moˈrɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

mōrōsus (feminine mōrōsa, neuter mōrōsum, comparative mōrōsior, superlative mōrōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The word for “hard to please” is from Latin mōs (“custom, (plural) character”) + -ōsus.[2][1][3] The ways implied are bad ones: a mōrōsus person is full of awkward habits.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Trinummus, where love is said to make people's ways mōrōsī, hard to please.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it described people who are difficult, exacting or pernickety:[2][6] Caecilius has a peevish wife, and Cicero complains that “we are so hard to please that Demosthenes himself does not satisfy us”.[2] It passed to things marked by such fussiness: Horace's crabbed grey hair, Ovid's stubborn illnesses, Pliny the Elder's painstaking art of engraving, and a cypress that grows only with difficulty.[2][6] Suetonius uses the comparative of excessive care for one's person.[2][6]

Medieval writers kept the sense of bad character: Ugutio glosses it as “having bad ways”, and John of Salisbury contrasts the well-mannered (morati) with those named morosi from their vices.[5] English took it over in the 1530s as morose, “gloomy, sullen”.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus says love makes people's ways mōrōsī.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero calls himself and his readers too hard to please for Demosthenes.[2][6][3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of canities morosa, crabbed grey hair.[2][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid applies it to stubborn illnesses.[2][6][3]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses the comparative of fastidious care of the body.[2][6][3]
  • 1530s – English borrows it as morose.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Hard to please, exacting, fastidious, peevish.[2][6]
  2. (of an activity, age, illness and the like) Marked by fussiness; painstaking; stubborn.[2][6]
  3. (of plants) Growing with difficulty.[6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Of bad character, wicked.[5]

Word family

  • mōrōsitās
  • mōrōsē
  • submōrōsus

morosus2 lingering, slow

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 340–397 Ambrose
Ultimate origin
Latin mora#1
Etymology tree of morosus2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mora
Latin mōrōsus
From the same root · morosus2
Latin moror ← mora

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mɔˈroː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [moˈrɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

morōsus (feminine morōsa, neuter morōsum, comparative morōsior, superlative morōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The word for “lingering” is from Latin mora1 (“delay”) + -ōsus.[2][7][1][3] The TLL notes, after Hofmann, that this sense seems to be heard in late uses of mōrōsus “hard to please” as well, so that the examples of the two are hard to separate.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example the OLD and the TLL give is in the undated metrical treatise of Terentianus Maurus, who asks for a reader's attention that is morōsa, slow and lingering, rather than casual.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it meant long, protracted or slow:[2][7] Ambrose pairs long meditation with a lingering attention of the mind, Symmachus has the comparative of a more drawn-out caution, and Vegetius calls a treatment difficult or slow.[7] Cassiodorus writes of someone to whom anything still to come seems slow, and of a journey made slow that had been invented for speed.[6]

Medieval Latin kept the senses “late, slow to come” and “sluggish, lazy”,[8] and “tedious, long-drawn-out”: Dungal finds it tedious to wait for a reply.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose speaks of a morosa attention of the mind.[7][3]
  • c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses the comparative morosior.[7][3]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of what is slow in coming.[6][7][3]
  • 800–827 – Dungal uses it of a tedious wait.[5][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Protracted, lengthy, lingering.[2][7][6]
  2. (Late Latin) Slow, slow in coming.[6][8]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Sluggish, lazy.[8]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Tedious, long-drawn-out.[5]

Usage notes

The TLL has a third, rare mōrōsus meaning “foolish”, which it compares with mōrus and mōriō.[7] The NGML has a medieval morosus “fitting, proper”, formed from mōs.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Morosus.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/morosus. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·