Mord

See also: mord and morð

German

Etymology

From Middle High German mort, from Old High German mord, from Proto-Germanic *murþą. Cognate with Dutch moord, English murth, Swedish mord, Finnish murha. Also related with English murder, French meurtre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔrt/, [mɔʁt], [mɔɐ̯t], [mɔːt]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Mord

Noun

Mord m (genitive Mordes or Mords, plural Morde)

1. murder
   • 1929, Kurt Tucholsky, Das Lächeln der Mona Lisa (Sammelband), Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, page 40:

     Der Mord ist, wie jedem gebildeten Staatsanwalt bekannt, eine Tat, die in der äußersten Ekstase und mit der kältesten Roheit begangen wird.

     Murder is, as known to every educated prosecutor, an act that is committed in utmost ecstasy and with the coldest brutality.

Usage notes

• Certain milder cases of murder, such as the American second-degree murder, are often covered by Totschlag in German legal terminology and do not then qualify as Mord.
• An English phrase like “Peter's murder” is ambiguous as it can mean either “the murder that Peter committed” or “the murder by which Peter was killed”. In German, „Peters Mord” can only mean the former. The latter is expressed as „der Mord an Peter“ or by using the word Ermordung („Peters Ermordung”).

Derived terms

• Ehrenmord
• Rufmord

Related terms

• Ermordung

Further reading

• “Mord” in Duden online