Mort
/mɔːrt/noun
Death, especially as a poetic or literary term; also a note sounded on a hunting horn to signal a kill.
Did you know?In heraldic and literary symbolism, mort is linked to the Latin language of death—mors, mortis—which also produced the vocabulary of mortality and the morgue.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*mer-
“To die or disappear; the reconstructed root behind several death-related words.”
Ancient Latin
Latin
mors, mortis
“Death; the noun formed from the verb morī, “to die.””
Classical Latin
Latin
mortuus
“Dead; the past participle of morī, “to die.””
11th–12th Century
Old French
mort
“Dead or death; inherited from Latin mortuus and mors.”
Middle English
English
mort
“Death, especially in poetic usage; also a hunting signal marking the death of a hunted animal.”
Modern English
English
mort
“A literary word for death and a traditional hunting-horn signal.”