moor

pronunciation

How to pronounce moor in British English: UK [mʊə(r)] word uk audio image

How to pronounce moor in American English: US [ mʊr] word us audio image

Noun:

open land usually with peaty soil covered with heather and bracken and moss
Verb:

secure in or as if in a berth or dock
come into or dock at a wharf
secure with cables or ropes

Word Origin

moor: moor: Counting the capitalized form, English has three separate words moor. The oldest, ‘open land’ [OE], comes from a prehistoric Germanic *mōraz or *mōram, whose other modern descendants, such as German moor, mean ‘swamp’, suggest the possibility of some connection with English mere ‘lake’ (see MARINE). Moor ‘tie up a boat’ [15] was probably borrowed from a Middle Low German mōren, a relative of Dutch meren ‘moor’.And Moor ‘inhabitant of North Africa’ [14] comes ultimately from Greek Mauros, a word no doubt of North African origin from which the name of the modern state Mauritania is derived. English relatives include morello [17], the name of a dark-skinned cherry which comes via Italian from Latin morellus or maurellus, a derivative of Maurus ‘Moor’; and morris dance.=> marine, mere; morello, morris dance

moor (v.): "to fasten (a vessel) by a cable," late 15c., probably related to Old English mærels "mooring rope," via unrecorded *mærian "to moor," or possibly borrowed from Middle Low German moren or Middle Dutch maren "to moor," from West Germanic *mairojan. Related: Moored, mooring. French amarrer is from Dutch.

moor (n.): "waste ground," Old English mor "morass, swamp," from Proto-Germanic *mora- (cognates: Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, Dutch meer "swamp," Old High German muor "swamp," also "sea," German Moor "moor," Old Norse mörr "moorland," marr "sea"), perhaps related to mere (n.), or from root *mer- "to die," hence "dead land." The basic sense in place names is 'marsh', a kind of low-lying wetland possibly regarded as less fertile than mersc 'marsh.' The development of the senses 'dry heathland, barren upland' is not fully accounted for but may be due to the idea of infertility. [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names]

Moor (n.): "North African, Berber," late 14c., from Old French More, from Medieval Latin Morus, from Latin Maurus "inhabitant of Mauritania" (northwest Africa, a region now corresponding to northern Algeria and Morocco), from Greek Mauros, perhaps a native name, or else cognate with mauros "black" (but this adjective only appears in late Greek and may as well be from the people's name as the reverse). Being a dark people in relation to Europeans, their name in the Middle Ages was a synonym for "Negro;" later (16c.-17c.) used indiscriminately of Muslims (Persians, Arabs, etc.) but especially those in India.