Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 17, 2020 23:17 UTC (Wed) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325)
In reply to: Loaded terms in free software by Wol
Parent article: Loaded terms in free software

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