morà

morà Grammatical information: f. ā Proto-Slavic meaning: `nightly spirit, nightmare'

Page in Trubačev: XIX 211-214

Church Slavic:

mora (SerbCS) `sorceress' [f ā]

Russian:

móra (dial.) `mythological female creature, ghost, darkness' [m/f ā] \{1\}

Ukrainian:

móra (dial.) `nightmare, house-spirit' [f ā]

Czech:

můra \{4\} `nightmare, mythological creature that suffocates people in their sleep, moth' [f ā]

Slovak:

mora, mura `demonical mythological creature that torments people in their sleep' [f ā]

Polish:

mora (dial.) `nightly spirit that attacks people and horses in their sleep, nightly apparition, nightmare' [f ā]

Slovincian:

mùora (dial.) `nightmare, its female personification' [f ā]

Serbo-Croatian:

mòra `nightmare' [f ā] \{2\};

Čak. Morȁ (Orbanići) `[personified] nightmare, female phantom (appears early in the morning, walks with the sound of a cat tripping;

makes a habit of sitting on people's throats and nearly suffocating them' [f ā]

Slovene:

móra `nightmare, owl' [f ā] \{3\}

Bulgarian:

morá `nightmare' [f ā]

Indo-European reconstruction: mor-eh₂

Certainty: +

Page in Pokorny: 735-736

Comments: The image of a (female) ghost who induces nightmares is apparently common to Slavic, Germanic and, possibly, Celtic. The root of this creature's name is unclear. Pokorny assumes a connection with *mer- `aufreiben, reiben; packen, rauben', which is not entirely convincing. For a discussion of the relationship between *mora and *mara, see s.v. *mara .

Other cognates:

OIc. mara `nightmare' [f];

OE mare `nightmare' [f];

OIr. mor-rígain `goddess of the battlefield, female demon' [f] \{5\}

Notes:

\{1\} The noun also occurs in Ru. kikímora m/f `house-sprite that spins at night'. \{2\} The folkloristic belief that the mora is an evil female creature (witch, sorceress) is mentioned in Karadžić's dictionary (cf. the form from Orbanići). \{3\} There is a variant mȏra `nightmare, house-spirit, creature that at night suffocates people in their sleep and harms animals' (Slovar slovenskega jezika II: 238. \{4\} In dialects, we find a variant mora .