moror

From mora (“delay”) +‎ -or (deponent verb-forming suffix).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ror/, [ˈmɔrɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ror/, [ˈmɔːror]

moror (present infinitive morārī or morārier, perfect active morātus sum); first conjugation, deponent

1. (intransitive) to linger, loiter

   Synonyms: habitō, cōnsistō

2. (transitive) to delay, hinder

   Synonyms: dētineō, cūnctor, retardō, prōtrahō, tardō, dubitō, trahō, differō

   Antonyms: ruō, currō, accurrō, trepidō, festīnō, prōvolō, properō, corripiō, affluō, mātūrō

3. to impede, detain, cause to wait, hinder, hold back, stay

   Synonyms: supprimō, arceō, refrēnō, obstō, cūnctor, contineō, retineō, cohibeō, intersaepiō, inclūdō, perimō, obstō, coerceō, officiō, reprimō, saepiō, comprimō

   Antonyms: līberō, eximō, absolvō, excipiō, exonerō, ēmittō

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.235–236:

     “Quid struit, aut quā spē inimīcā in gente morātur,
     nec prōlem Ausoniam et Lāvīnia respicit arva?”

     “What does Aeneas intend, or what hope detains him among hostile people, such that he disregards his Ausonian children and the Lavinian fields?”

¹The present passive infinitive in -ier is a rare poetic form which is attested.

• Italian: muorarsi (dialect of Lucca)
• → Old French: morer
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: morar
  • Galician: morar
  • Portuguese: morar
• → Old Spanish: morar
  • Ladino: morar
  • Spanish: morar

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “morari”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 6/3: Mobilis–Myxa, page 124

From Ancient Greek μωρός (mōrós, “dull, slow”). Coined by Nero most likely. A pun based on the resemblance to its homograph.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmoː.ror/, [ˈmoːrɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmo.ror/, [ˈmɔːror]

mōror (present infinitive mōrārī); first conjugation, deponent, no perfect or supine stem

1. (hapax) to be a fool
   • c. 69 CE – 122 CE, Suetonius, De vita Caesarum VI 33:

     Certē omnibus rērum verbōrumque contumēliīs mortuum īnsectātus est, modo stultitiae modo saevitiae arguēns; nam et mōrārī eum dēsīsse inter hominēs prōductā prīmā syllabā iocābātur multaque dēcrēta et cōnstitūta, ut īnsipientis atque dēlīrī, prō irritīs habuit.

     He certainly blamed the dead one [Claudius] with all insults, of deeds and of words, sometimes reproving his stupidity, other times his cruelty; for he jested about him having ceased to be a fool among people (with a lengthened first syllable) as well as having nullified many decrees and edicts of his, as those of an unwise and crazy one.

• “moror”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “moror”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• moror in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• moror in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016