μωρέ

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Ancient Greek

Pronunciation

 

Adjective

μωρέ • (mōré)

  1. masculine vocative singular of μωρός (mōrós)

Greek

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /moˈɾe/
  • Hyphenation: μω‧ρέ

Etymology 1

Inflectional form.

Adjective

μωρέ • (moré)

  1. Vocative masculine singular form of μωρός (morós).

Etymology 2

Inherited from Byzantine Greek μωρέ (mōré), from Ancient Greek μωρέ (mōré), already used as interjection in Hellenistic Koine, vocative singular of μωρός (mōrós, “stupid”), initially as "ὦ (ô) μῶρε (môre)!", often in Aristophanes, vocative of form μῶρος (môros). Also see the vernacular ωρέ (oré).[1]
For the mediaeval forms μρέ (mré), μπρέ (mpré), βρέ (bré), see Etymology at the modern βρε (vre).

The interjection seems to be etymologically identical to the vocative adjective, from Byzantine Greek μωρέ (mōré), via the semantic shift “fool” → “buddy, mate, man” (paralleled, for example, by AAVE fool and Latin American Spanish huevón). Likely a doublet of βρε (vre) and ρε (re), which may be clippings from the same original word. As similar interjections are found across the Balkan sprachbund (cf. Albanian bre and more), this has led some linguists to speculate about substrate origin, but the more popular assumption is that all are eventually from Greek. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Interjection

μωρέ • (moré) (feminine μωρή)

  1. (colloquial, informal) you, dude, mate (a sort of vocative familiar call to a (male) friend or acquaintance)
    Πότε θα μας επισκεφτείς, μωρέ; ― Póte tha mas episkefteís, moré; ― When will you be visiting us, dude?
    Άντε μωρέ, μην τον ακούς, ψέματα σου λέει.
    Ánte moré, min ton akoús, psémata sou léei.
    Sure mate, don't listen to him, he's telling you lies.
  2. (colloquial, informal) hey, jeez, gosh, yikes, oh my (expressing surprise, bewilderment, admiration, etc)
    Μωρέ κοίτα τι γίνεται στην πλατεία! ― Moré koíta ti gínetai stin plateía! ― Hey, look what's happening in the square!
    Μωρέ μπράβο που το κατόρθωσες. ― Moré brávo pou to katórthoses. ― Hey well done for managing to do it.
Alternative forms
Descendants
  • → Albanian: more
  • → Bulgarian: мо́ре (móre)
  • → Macedonian: море (more)
  • → Serbo-Croatian: мо̑ре / mȏre

References

  1. ^ μωρέ - Babiniotis, Georgios (2010) Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας Etymologikó lexikó tis néas ellinikís glóssas [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek language] (in Greek), Athens: Lexicology Centre
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