† maurn.

Forms: Middle English mor, Middle English mour, Middle English moure, Middle English mowr, Middle English mowre, Middle English mur, Middle English mawros (plural, in a late copy, probably transmission error), 1600s maure; Scottish pre-1700 mour, pre-1700 mowr.

Origin: A borrowing from early Scandinavian.

Etymology: < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic maurr , Norwegian (Nynorsk) maur , Old Swedish mör (Swedish regional möur , mör )), probably ultimately < an ablaut variant of the Indo-European base of mire n.²First attested in a surname (see quot. 1366 at main sense).

Obsolete.

An ant.Recorded earliest in maur-hill n. at Compounds.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > ant

anteOE

emmeteOE

mirea1300

maur1366

pismirec1395

formice1484

merpyss1527

calicrat?1590

pissant1649

formica1865

muryan1865

macraner1907

1366 in G. Kristensson Stud. Middle Eng. Topogr. Terms (1970) 32 (MED) Rog. del Mourehyles.

?a1425 Mandeville's Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 149 When þe wedir es noȝt hate ne mowres [?a1425 Titus pissemyres] hydez þaim noȝt in þe erthe.

?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) 2408 (MED) Salomon biddes a slaw man ga To þe moure teching to ta.

a1500 Mandeville's Trav. (Rawl.) (1953) 471 The kind of the mors is that they wole leefe noothing empty besides hem.

c1520 M. Nisbet New Test. in Scots (1901) I. Matt. vi. 20 Quhar nouthir roust nor mowris destroyis.

c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 111 How Mawros were men made on a day At þe prayer of a prinse.

Compounds

maur-hill n. an anthill.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > ant > that form ant-hills > ant-hill

anthilleOE

ant bedeOE

pismire hill1440

maur-hill?c1475

maur house?c1475

ant heap1591

molehill1610

ant-hillock1656

bank1667

sprout hill1766

formicary1816

ant mound1830

formicarium1834

1366Mourehyles [see main sense].

?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 82 ^v A mowre, formica. A mowre hylle, formicarium.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 379 (margin) Maure-hils, corruptly called Moule-hils: for Ants were in old English called Maures.

maur house n. rare = maur-hill n.

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