1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moor

MOOR. (1) A heath, an unenclosed stretch of waste or uncultivated land, covered with heather; also such a heath preserved for game-shooting, particularly for the shooting of grouse. The O. Eng. mór, bog, moor, is represented in other Teutonic languages; cf. Dan. mor, Ger. Moor, O. Du. moer, &c.; from an O. Du. adjectival form moerasch comes Eng. morass, a bog. Probably mere, marsh, are not to be connected with these words. (2) The verb “to moor,” to fasten a ship or boat to the shore, to another vessel, or to an anchor or buoy, by cables, &c., is probably from the root seen in mod. Du. meren, which also gives the English nautical term “marline,” small strands of rope used for lashings or seizings, and “marline-spike,” a small iron tool for separating the strands of rope, &c.