An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Mord

by Friedrich Kluge

Mord, masculine, ‘murder,’ from Middle High German mort (-des), masculine and neuter, Old High German mord, neuter; compare Old Saxon morth, Dutch moord, Anglo-Saxon and Old Icelandic morð, ‘murder,’ with the common meaning ‘intentional, secret death-blow.’ Gothic *maurþ, neuter, is wanting; it is based on pre-Teutonic mṛto-m, neuter, and originally meant ‘death’ simply, as the root mor, ‘to die,’ widely diffused through all the Aryan languages, indicates. Compare the Sanscrit root mṛ, ‘to die,’ mṛtá-m, neuter, ‘death,’ amṛta-m, ‘immortality,’ mṛtas, ‘dead,’ márta-s, ‘mortal,’ amṛta-s, ‘immortal,’ mṛtyús, ‘death’; Latin mori, ‘to die,’ mortuus, ‘dead,’ mors (Sanscrit mṛti-s), ‘death’; Old Slovenian mrĕti, ‘to die,’ morŭ-sŭ-mrŭtĭ, ‘death,’ mrŭtvŭ (Latin mortuus), ‘dead’; Lithuanian mìrti, ‘to die,’ mirtìs, ‘death,’ In Greek as well as in Old Teutonic the strong root mṛ is wanting, but its derivatives βροτός, ‘mortal’ (for *μρο-τό-ς), ἀμβροτός, ‘immortal,’ have been preserved; Old Irish marb, ‘dead.’ In Teutonic the root has assumed the sense of ‘intentional, secret killing,’ the older meaning ‘to die, death,’ supplanted by sterben and Tod, having become obsolete; Middle High German mort, ‘dead,’ was borrowed from French mort. Compare further Gothic maúrþr, neuter (in Sanscrit *mṛtra-m), Anglo-Saxon morþor, neuter, equivalent to English murder; also Old High German murdiren, Gothic maurþrjan, ‘to murder’; hence French meurtre, Middle Latin mordrum, ‘murderous deed.’