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Probably originally a transcription of Sanskritमोह(moha, “folly”), used as a cant term among monks.
Alternatively, may have arisen from the same root as Old Japanese痴(woko, modern oko, “stupidity, ridiculousness”). However, this theory is problematic phonologically, as the /b/ ↔ /w/ shift is difficult to explain.
The characters 馬鹿(literally “horse + deer”) are ateji (当て字), probably chosen as an allusion to Literary Chinese指鹿為馬 (“to deliberately misinterpret and invert right and wrong”, literally “to point to a deer and call it a horse”) (see that entry for more).