mort

See also: Mort, mórt, mòrt, môrt, and mört

Languages (21)

English

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Albanian • Aromanian • Bourguignon • Catalan • Dutch • French • Ladin • Maltese • Middle French • Norman • Norwegian Bokmål • Norwegian Nynorsk • Occitan • Old French • Picard • Romanian • Romansh • Scottish Gaelic • Serbo-Croatian • Sudovian

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Page categories

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɔːt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /mɔɹt/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t

Etymology 1

From Middle English mort, from Old French mort (“death”).

Noun

mort (countable and uncountable, plural morts)

1. Death; especially, the death of game in hunting.
   • 1958, Terence Hanbury White, chapter I, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone):

     If you did the wrong thing at the mort or the undoing, for instance, you were bent over the body of the dead beast and smacked with the flat side of a sword.

2. A note sounded on a horn at the death of a deer.
   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     The sportsman then sounded a treble mort.

3. (UK, Scotland, dialect) The skin of a sheep or lamb that has died of disease.
4. (card games) A variety of dummy whist for three players.
5. (card games) The exposed or dummy hand of cards in the game of mort.

Derived terms

• micromort
• morkin
• mort bell
• mort cloth
• morthouse
• mortling
• mort stone

Related terms

• alamort, all-a-mort
• mort d'ancestor
• mort de chien

Etymology 2

Compare Icelandic margt, neuter of margr (“many”).

Noun

mort (plural morts)

1. A great quantity or number.
   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 63, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

     a mort of water

   • 1937, Dorothy L. Sayers, Busman's Honeymoon:

     Full o’ sut this chimney is. Ain’t been swep’ for a mort o’ years I reckon.

   • 1937 (written, first published in 1949), J. R. R. Tolkien, Farmer Giles of Ham

     As it was, he still had a mort of treasure at home in his cave.

Etymology 3

Clipping of mortal.

Noun

mort (plural morts)

1. (Internet, informal) A player in a multi-user dungeon who does not have special administrator privileges and whose character can be killed.

Antonyms

• immort

Derived terms

• remort

Etymology 4

Uncertain.

Noun

mort (plural morts)

1. A three-year-old salmon.

Etymology 5

UK circa 1560–1890. Unknown. Documented possibilities include:

• From mort (“A three-year-old salmon”), by equation of women with fish.
• From Welsh modryb (“aunt”)
• From Welsh morwyn (“maid, virgin”)
• From French amourette (“a crush”)
• From, or cognate with, Dutch mot (“pig, lewd woman”), from Middle Low German mutte.
• From French motte (“mound, esp. mons veneris”)
• From Romani mintš (“female genitals”). Cognate with English minge.

Alternative forms

• mot, mott

Noun

mort (plural morts)

1. (obsolete, UK, thieves' cant) A woman; a female.
   • 1621, Ben Jonson, The Gypsies Metamorphosed:

     Male gypsies all, not a mort among them.

   • 1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales:

     "Yes, master! I and my mort worships something besides good ale; don't we, Sue?" and then he leered at the mort, who leered at him […] .

   • 1896, John Stephen Farmer, Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present, page 109:

     KINCHIN-MORTS, the Twenty-seventh and last Order of the Canting Crew, being girls of a year or two old whom the Morts (their Mothers) carry at their Backs in Slates (Sheets) […] .

   • 1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 3: Proteus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 47:

     With woman steps she followed: the ruffian and his strolling mort.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:woman

Derived terms

• autem mort
• ben mort
• dimber mort
• gentry mort
• kinchin mort
• mort dell
• mort wap-apace
• nazie mort
• queer mort
• rum mort
• strolling mort
• walking mort
• wapping mort

Anagrams

• mTOR

Albanian

Etymology

From Latin mors, mortem. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “should probably be specified as a borrowing”)

Noun

mort m

1. death

See also

• vdekje

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• mortu

Etymology

From Latin mortuus. Compare Romanian mort.

Adjective

mort (feminine morte, masculine plural morts, feminine plural morti)

1. dead

Derived terms

• murtami
• nimort

Bourguignon

Etymology 1

From Latin mortuus.

Adjective

mort (feminine mote, masculine plural morts, feminine plural motes)

1. dead

Etymology 2

From Latin mors.

Noun

mort f (plural morts)

1. death

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [ˈmo̞rt]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central, Northwestern) [ˈmɔrt]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈmɔɾt]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɾt

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Catalan mort, from Latin mortem.

Noun

mort f (uncountable)

1. death

Noun

mort m (plural morts)

1. (colloquial) a difficult problem one must face
2. (nautical) mooring block

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Catalan mort, from Latin mortuus.

Adjective

mort (feminine morta, masculine plural morts, feminine plural mortes)

1. dead

Noun

mort m (plural morts)

1. dead person

Participle

mort (feminine morta, masculine plural morts, feminine plural mortes)

1. past participle of morir

   45.000 persones han mort

   45000 people have died

Related terms

• morir

Further reading

• “mort”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “mort”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “mort” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “mort”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔrt

Verb

mort

1. inflection of morren:
   1. second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. (archaic) plural imperative

Anagrams

• trom

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔʁ/

• Audio; “la mort”:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost)):

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Paris)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France):

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• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Rhymes: -ɔʁ
• Homophones: mord, mords, more, mores, mors, morts (general), maure, maures (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French, from Old French mort, from Vulgar Latin *mortu, from Latin mortuus.

Participle

mort (feminine morte, masculine plural morts, feminine plural mortes)

1. past participle of mourir

Adjective

mort (feminine morte, masculine plural morts, feminine plural mortes)

1. dead

   Le roi est mort. ― The king is dead.

   • 1960, “Les deux guitares”, performed by Charles Aznavour:

     Tu es vivant aujourd'hui, tu seras mort demain / Et encore plus après-demain

     You are alive today, you will be dead tomorrow / And even more after tomorrow

Synonyms

• défunt

Derived terms

• angle mort
• bras mort
• comme un rat mort
• être un homme mort
• jusqu'à ce que mort s'en suive
• laisser pour mort
• langue morte
• lien mort
• marée de morte eau
• mémoire morte
• mer Morte
• mort de faim
• mort de rire
• mort et enterré
• mort ou vif
• morte la bête, mort le venin
• nature morte
• peser un âne mort
• poids mort
• point mort
• raide mort
• rester lettre morte
• temps mort
• ville mort

Noun

mort m (plural morts, feminine morte)

1. dead person

   Synonym: défunt

Derived terms

• à réveiller un mort
• faire le mort
• fleur des morts
• tête de mort

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle French mort, from Old French mort, from Latin mors.

Noun

mort f (plural morts)

1. death

Guy Miège, French-English dictionary, 1688. "Une mort naturelle, violente, subite, a natural, a violent, or a sudden death. Mort glorieuse ou honteuse, a glorious or a shamefull death."

Derived terms

• à l'article de la mort
• à mort
• arrêt de mort
• aux portes de la mort
• camp de la mort
• combat à mort
• de la mort qui tue
• expérience de mort imminente
• femme au volant, mort au tournant
• il n'y a pas mort d'homme
• La Mort aux Juifs
• la mort dans l'âme
• lit de mort
• marche de la mort
• mettre à mort
• mise à mort
• mort aux cabris
• mort aux rats
• mort aux vaches
• mort cérébrale
• mort clinique
• mort subite
• mourir de sa belle mort
• peine de mort
• petite mort
• pulsion de mort
• rifler la mort
• se donner la mort
• signer son arrêt de mort
• trompette de la mort
• trouver la mort
• vipère de la mort

Related terms

• mourir
• morte
• mourant

Descendants

• ⇒ Guianese Creole: lanmò
• ⇒ Haitian Creole: lanmò
• ⇒ Mauritian Creole: lamor
• → English: mort

Further reading

• “mort”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Ladin

Etymology

From Latin mors, mortem.

Noun

mort f (plural mortes)

1. death

Maltese

Verb

mort

1. inflection of mar:
   1. first-person singular perfect
   2. second-person singular perfect

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French mort, from Latin mors, mortem.

Noun

mort m or f (plural mors)

1. death

Descendants

• French: mort
  • ⇒ Guianese Creole: lanmò
  • ⇒ Haitian Creole: lanmò
  • ⇒ Mauritian Creole: lamor
  • → English: mort

Norman

Etymology 1

From Old French mort, from Vulgar Latin *mortu(s), from Latin mortuus.

Adjective

mort m

1. (Jersey) dead

   Lé rouai est mort, lé rouai vit!

   The king is dead, long live the king!

Synonyms

• souôs la bliête (“six feet under”)
• souôs les mèrgots (“dead and buried”)

Derived terms

• La Mé Morte (“The Dead Sea”)
• mort-né (“stillborn”)
• morte-ieau (“neap-tide”)

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mer-

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Indo-European *-tis

Proto-Indo-European *mértis ~ *mr̥téys

Proto-Italic *mortis

Latin mors, mortem

Old French mort

Norman mort

From Old French mort, from Latin mors, mortem.

Noun

mort f (plural morts)

1. (Jersey) death

Synonyms

• décès

Derived terms

• au pas d'la mort, au nom d'mort (“at death's door”)
• liet d'mort (“deathbed”)

Related terms

• mortalité (“mortality”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse murtr, murti.

Noun

mort m (definite singular morten, indefinite plural morter, definite plural mortene)

1. the common roach, Rutilus rutilus

References

• “mort” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse murtr, murti.

Noun

mort m (definite singular morten, indefinite plural mortar, definite plural mortane)

1. the common roach, Rutilus rutilus

Derived terms

• dassmort

References

• “mort” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Occitan

Alternative forms

• mòrt

Etymology

From Old Occitan mort, from Latin mors, mortem.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Gascony):

  (file)

Noun

mort f (plural morts)

1. death

Related terms

• morir

Old French

Etymology 1

From Vulgar Latin *mortu(s), from Latin mortuus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔɾt/
• Rhymes: -ɔrt

Verb

mort

1. past participle of morir

Adjective

mort m (feminine morte)

2. dead
   • c. 1150, Turoldus, La Chanson de Roland:

     Or veit Rollant que mort est sun ami

     Now Roland can see that his friend is dead

Declension

	Case	masculine	feminine	neuter
singular	subject	morz	morte	mort
	oblique	mort			morte	mort
plural	subject	mort	mortes		mort
	oblique	morz			mortes	mort

Descendants

• Middle French: mort
  • French: mort
• Picard: mort
• Norman: mort (Jersey)
• Walloon: moirt

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mer-

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Indo-European *-tis

Proto-Indo-European *mértis ~ *mr̥téys

Proto-Italic *mortis

Latin mors, mortem

Old French mort

From Latin mors, mortem. First attested in Old French in 881 in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.

Noun

mort oblique singular, f (oblique plural morz or mortz, nominative singular mort, nominative plural morz or mortz)

2. death
   • c. 1150, Thomas d'Angleterre, Le Roman de Tristan, Champion Classiques edition, →ISBN, page 104, line 1027:

     car sun chant signefie mort

     for his song signifies death

Related terms

• morir

Descendants

• Middle French: mort
  • French: mort
    • ⇒ Guianese Creole: lanmò
    • ⇒ Haitian Creole: lanmò
    • ⇒ Mauritian Creole: lamor
    • → English: mort
• Picard: mort
• Norman: mort (Jersey)
• Walloon: moirt

Picard

Etymology

From Latin mors.

Noun

mort f (plural morts)

1. death

Related terms

• moérir

Romanian

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *mortu(s), from Latin mortuus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mort]

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

mort m or n (feminine singular moartă, masculine plural morți, feminine/neuter plural moarte)

1. dead

   Antonym: viu

   oamenii morți ― the dead people

Declension

Declension of mort

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	mort		moartă	morți	moarte
	definite	mortul		moarta	morții	moartele
genitive- dative	indefinite	mort		moarte	morți	moarte
	definite	mortului		moartei	morților	moartelor

Noun

mort m (plural morți, feminine equivalent moartă)

1. dead body, corpse

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	mort	mortul	morți	morții
genitive-dative	mort	mortului	morți	morților
vocative	mortule		morților

Related terms

• amorți
• dă-o-n morții mă-sii
• dă-te-n morții mă-tii
• dă-te-n morții tăi
• du-te-n morții mă-tii
• du-te-n morții tăi
• în morții mă-sii
• în morții mă-tii
• în morții tăi
• moarte
• mortăciune
• morții mă-sii
• morții mă-tii
• morții tăi
• muri

Romansh

Alternative forms

• miert (Sursilvan)

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *mortu(s), from Latin mortuus.

Adjective

mort m (feminine singular morta, masculine plural morts, feminine plural mortas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Vallader) dead

Related terms

• murir

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

mort m (genitive singular moirt, nominative plural moirt)

1. alternative form of murt

Verb

mort (past mhort, future mortaidh, verbal noun mort or mortadh, past participle morte)

1. alternative form of murt

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911), “mort”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Clipping of German Mörtel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /môrt/
• Hyphenation: mort

Noun

mȍrt m inan (Cyrillic spelling мо̏рт)

1. (regional) mortar (masonry)

Declension

Declension of mort

	singular	plural
nominative	mort	mortovi
genitive	morta	mortova
dative	mortu	mortovima
accusative	mort	mortove
vocative	morte	mortovi
locative	mortu	mortovima
instrumental	mortom	mortovima

References

• “mort”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

Sudovian

Etymology

Derived from Proto-Balto-Slavic *mertéi, with ablaut alternation like in Lithuanian mari̇̀nti, from Proto-Indo-European *mer-.

Verb

mort

1. to die (Polish gloss: umrzeć)

Related terms

nouns

• mard

References

• Zigmas Zinkevičius (1985), “Lenkų-jotvingių žodynėlis? [A Polish-Yotvingian dictionary?]”, in Baltistica, volume 21, number 1 (in Lithuanian), Vilnius: VU, →DOI, page 77