Etymology: Cognate with Middle Dutch moor , moer (Dutch moer ), Old Saxon mōr (Middle Low German mōr , mūr , German regional (Low German) Moor ( > German Moor (17th cent.), Danish regional mor , moor )), Old High German muor (Middle High German muor , German regional (Bavaria) Muër ), and (with jō -stem) Old High German -muorra (in salzmuorra saltmarsh), Old Icelandic mœrr , all in sense ‘fenland, marsh’, all probably < an ablaut variant (lengthened grade) of the Germanic base of mere n.¹ The Germanic word was borrowed into Latin as mora, morus bog, marsh (a1018 in a North German source; from 1086 in British sources) and into Anglo-Norman as more, mour marsh, swamp (12th cent.).It is often difficult to distinguish sense 1 from sense 2 in Old English (see L. Schücking Untersuchungen zur Bedeutungslehre der Angelsächsischen Dichtersprache (1915) 50–60, and G. B. Grundy ‘On the meaning of certain terms in Anglo-Saxon charters’ in Essays & Studies (1922) 8 64). Sense 2 is unique to English, and its development may perhaps have been influenced by the etymologically unrelated early Scandinavian word represented by Old Icelandic mór heath, moorland (see moler n.²), which probably also underlies many place names with the element moor . Sense 1 appears to have been common only in lowland areas of England (chiefly in the south and east); in upland areas of both England and Scotland, where sense 2 is common, a different word is used to denote marshland (mire n.¹ and moss n.¹ respectively).

Etymology: In Old English < classical Latin Maurus (see below); in later use reborrowed < Anglo-Norman and Middle French more inhabitant of (North) Africa and Muslim Spain, (adjective) black, brown (late 13th cent. in Old French, earlier in form mor (late 12th cent.), French maure inhabitant of North Africa (1636) after the classical Latin form) and its etymons classical Latin Maurus (post-classical Latin Morus), Hellenistic Greek Μαῦρος. Further etymology uncertain (see note below). Compare Old Occitan maur (Occitan maura, mora) inhabitant of Africa, (adjective) black, Spanish moro inhabitant of Africa, Muslim (1091), Catalan moro inhabitant of Africa, Muslim (13th cent.), Portuguese mouro inhabitant of Africa (c1060), Muslim (1513), Italian moro Muslim (a1470), (adjective) African (a1476), and also Middle Dutch Moor (1270), Moer (Dutch Moor), Middle Low German (rare) mōre black person, Old High German Mōr North African, black person, the Devil (Middle High German Mōr, in the same senses, German Mohr (archaic) black person).A possible derivation of classical Latin Maurus , Hellenistic Greek Μαῦρος < an ancient North African language on the basis of a mutilated line of Egyptian hieroglyphics (c1285 b.c.: see K. A. Kitchen Ramesside Inscriptions (1976) IV. 17) has been rejected. The semantic development from ‘inhabitant of North Africa’ to ‘dark brown, black’ (see note at sense 1) occurred already in post-classical Latin and may also be seen in Hellenistic Greek μαῦρος black (unless this is aphetic < ἀμαυρός blind). The semantic development to ‘Muslim’ (see sense 2) is also found for Spanish moro and Portuguese mouro (from 1513 in this sense). In the Older Scots form meir with usual north-eastern unrounding of /yː/, the fronted reflex of Middle English long close ō (see A. J. Aitken & C. Macafee Older Scots Vowels (2002) §7.1). Attested as a surname in England from the late 12th cent., as Johannes filius More (1185), Hugo Maurus (1186), Thomas le Mor (1201), though it is unclear whether these are to be interpreted as Middle English or Anglo-Norman. In Moor macaque , Moor monkey (see Compounds 1), after scientific Latin Macacus maurus (H. R. Schinz in Cuvier's Thierreich (1825) IV. 257). Earlier authors had used maurus or maura as a specific name for a monkey (originally in Simia maura , J. C. D. Schreber Säugthiere I. (1774) 107), but confused various dark-furred species of macaque and leaf monkey. Compare Negro monkey n. at Negro n. and adj. Compounds 3.

Etymology: < moor v.¹ Compare earlier mooring n.¹

Etymology: Either the reflex of an unattested Old English verb cognate with Middle Dutch (coastal) māren (with vowel perhaps reflecting an unattested Frisian form) to moor a vessel, tie up an animal < the Germanic base of the first element of Old English mǣrels-rāp , mārels mooring-rope, compare Middle Dutch mēren (Dutch meren ) to tie up, moor, or directly < Middle Dutch māren (although such a loan must have taken place before the change of ā to ō in early Middle English); earlier currency of the verb is probably implied by post-classical Latin moragium moorage n. German regional (Low German) vermoren to moor a vessel, is < English.Middle Dutch merren , marren to tie, moor (compare marl v.⁵) probably arose from a confusion of mēren , māren with merren , marren to delay, hinder (see mar v.).

Etymology: Either a back-formation < mooring n.², or < moor n.¹, after moor-ill n.