Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 17, 2020 23:02 UTC (Wed) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: Loaded terms in free software by gioele
Parent article: Loaded terms in free software

What happens when we then throw the English word "moor" into the mix? Dunno the origin of the word, but it has nothing to do with either people or colour, being a remote upland often boggy or covered in heather.

(And I've always thought of Moor (as in a person) as being an archaic word for some one from Northern Africa especially Morocco.)

Cheers,
Wol

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 17, 2020 23:17 UTC (Wed) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325) [Link]

Merriam-Webster says* that the lowercase noun is of unrelated etymology:

- moor, meaning a bog or other infertile land, came from Old High German (muor) via Old English (mōr).
- moor, meaning to tie off a ship or boat, came from Middle English (moren), and is "akin to" Middle Dutch (meren, maren).
- Moor, meaning a person from North Africa, came from Latin (Maurus) via Anglo-French and Middle English (More). It originally referred to Mauretania.**

TL;DR: When in doubt, blame the French.

* https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moor
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauretania