Etymology

moorhen

M3O1O1R1H4E1N1

Today it means: Any of various medium-sized water birds of the genus Gallinula, of the rail family, that feed in open water margins. Full definition →

Middle English morhen ← Old English *mōrhenn
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromworhenn
  2. Old English · inherited from*mōrhenn
  3. Middle English · inherited frommorhen
  4. English todaymoorhen

From Middle English morhen, perhaps from Old English *mōrhenn, an alteration of Old English worhenn (compare coordinate masculine term mōrhana, a possible corruption of worhana (“pheasant”)), equivalent to moor + hen.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.