mouro

Forms

mouro m (plural mouros, feminine moura, feminine plural mouras)^[1] moiro is a variant of the word.^[1][2][3] The Crónica Geral writes it mouro, and once each movro and moro.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Maurus (“Moor, Moorish”), written Old Galician-Portuguese mouro in the oldest texts.^[1][5][6] Houaiss derives the noun from the plural Mauri (“the Moors, the people of Mauretania”) and the adjective from the Latin adjective, which also meant Carthaginian.^[7][8]

The same Latin word is Spanish moro, Italian moro, Catalan moro and Romanian maur.^[9][1] The learned mauro is a doublet of the Portuguese word, and Cunha dates it to 1572.^[5][1]

Wiktionary takes the Latin word from the Greek name of the Moors, which its Portuguese entry links with Ancient Greek μαυρός (maurós, “dark”).^[1] LSJ gives this adjective as another form of ἀμαυρός (amaurós, “dim, dark”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Latin charter of 1078 records a Moorish slave woman, una Moura que serviat me “a Moorish woman to serve me”.^[4] The first vernacular record in the DDGM is a toll regulation of 1228: se alguun extranyo uender mouro ou moura “if a stranger sells a Moorish man or woman”.^[4] In the cantigas of the 13th century the word means a Saracen, a Muslim of Spain or Africa: the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of the Algarve, que gãou de mouros “which he won from the Moors”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval chronicles mouro is both noun and adjective (hũu rrei mouro que era d' Afriqua “a Moorish king who was from Africa”), and the DDGM also gives it the sense “black”.^[4] When the Portuguese reached Asia they called every Muslim a mouro, a use Dalgado documents from 1513 in the letters of Afonso de Albuquerque.^[11][7] It also came to mean an unbaptised person, a pagan.^[7][12]

The phrase trabalhar como um mouro “to work like a Moor”, “to toil”, is recorded with the noun “a person who works without rest”; the verb mourejar belongs here.^[13][7] Bluteau collected proverbs on the word in 1712, such as quem poupa seu Mouro, poupa seu ouro “who spares his Moor spares his gold”.^[14] Morais records ficar mouro “to become furious”.^[15]

Colour senses followed: a dark-skinned person, a dark horse flecked with white, and in Portugal a black pudding, chouriço mouro.^[7][16] In Brazil the mouros are one of the two sides in the cavalhadas, and in Guinea-Bissau a mouro is a healer and seer who uses verses of the Qur'an.^[7][17] In northern Portugal the word is a joking name for the people of Lisbon and the south.^[1] It passed to Macanese as môro.^[1]

Timeline

• 1055–1065 – Houaiss's first date for the noun, after Machado.^[7]
• 1078 – una Moura in a Latin charter.^[4]
• 1228 – uender mouro ou moura in a toll regulation.^[4]
• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the cantigas d'escarnho of Alfonso X use mouro.^[4]
• 1430 – mouro in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[18]
• 1513 – Albuquerque's letters call the Muslims of India mouros.^[11]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders mouro by Latin maurus.^[19]
• 1572 – Houaiss's first date for the adjective.^[7]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists mourisca dança and mourama.^[20]
• 1712 – Bluteau collects Portuguese proverbs on the word.^[14]
• 1789 – Morais has unguento mouro and ficar mouro.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) An Arab-Berber inhabitant of ancient North Africa, of Mauritânia.^[7][12]
2. (historical) A member of the Muslim peoples who conquered the Iberian Peninsula; a Moor.^[7][17][1]
3. An inhabitant of the western Sahara, chiefly of Mauritania.^[7]
4. (chiefly historical) A Muslim of any people; muçulmano, sarraceno.^[7][2][1]
5. (archaic) A person who has not been baptised, considered a pagan by Christians; an infidel.^[7][12]
6. (figurative) A person who works without rest.^[7][21]
7. (southern Brazil) One of the two sides in the cavalhadas.^[7][2]
8. (Guinea-Bissau) A healer and seer who makes remedies with verses of the Qur'an.^[7][17]
9. (northern Portugal, colloquial) A joking and slightly derogatory name for a person from Lisbon or the south of Portugal.^[1]
10. (in the plural, Pernambuco) mouros: folk plays, music and dances on the battles of Moors and Christians.^[7]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the Moors; Moorish (mourisco).^[7][3][1]
2. Muslim, Islamic.^[7][1]
3. (archaic) Not baptised; heathen.^[7][2]
4. Dark-skinned, swarthy (trigueiro).^[7][16]
5. (cooking, Portugal) Of a chouriço: made with blood, fat and white wine.^[7]
6. Of wine: pure, not mixed with water.^[7]
7. Of a horse: dark, flecked with white.^[7][2]

Word family

• mourama
• mouraria
• mourejar
• mourisco
• mouresco
• mourisma
• mata-mouros

Related words

• Maurício
• Mauritânia
• mauritano
• mauro
• Latin Maurus
• Spanish moro

Usage notes

The set phrases trabalhar como um mouro “to work very hard” and haver mouro na costa “there is a Moor on the coast”, that is, someone is watching, are common.^[1][13]

In the folklore of Portugal and Galicia a mouro or moura (mouro encantado) is an enchanted being who lives in springs, rivers, hill-forts and dolmens.^[17][22][1] Wiktionary gives this sense a separate, Paleo-Hispanic origin, and the DLP connects the figure with Celtic myths.^[1][17] Silva Bastos records the popular sense “a ruined pre-Roman monument”.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. mouro
3. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. mouro
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. mouro
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. mouro
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. mouro
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. mouro
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5438
10. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. μαυρός
11. ^ a b Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 2, 74
12. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. mouro
13. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. mouro
14. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mouro
15. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 101
16. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 2
17. ^ a b c d e Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. mouro
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. mouro
19. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mouro
20. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. mouro
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 6345
22. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org
23. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. mouro