# Origin of Spanish word "morado" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887 "2014-07-23T23:20:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gretchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@Gretchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretchion)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/1 "2014-07-23T23:20:45Z")
Rosado = color of roses Dorado = color of gold ore Anaranjado = color of an orange What about “morado”? I know it means purple, but what is it describing, if anything, like in the examples above? I’ve asked a few people who know a lot more Spanish than me, and the suggestions were “color of death”, “color of bruises”, and “color of the Moors”. Any dopers with any idea? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/2 "2014-07-24T00:04:45Z")
There is a fruit, similar to the Mulberry, in Centrral America called “mora”. I suspect it might be an allusion to the color of that fruit. Edit – a further search shows that the Mora is the Spanish name for the common blackberry. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/3 "2014-07-24T00:19:06Z")
Morado derives from the Latin _mora_, and mora from the Latin _morum_, referring to a plant. Morado as a color derives from the color of the berry of a Southeast Asian plant, _Morus nigra_ which is the black mulberry. The term was in use as such in Castillian from the mid fifteen century thus precluding any New World origin. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/4 "2014-07-24T02:49:38Z")
As mentioned, it’s the color of _moras_, meaning a kind of dark berry. > [@Gretchion](#): > > I’ve asked a few people who know a lot more Spanish than me, and the suggestions were … “color of bruises”… Actually I supect _“moretones”_ to mean bruises works the other way around, that is, you refer to bruises by that word because they get black-and-blue. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/5 "2014-07-24T03:46:03Z")
> [@Gretchion](#): > > “color of the Moors” The word they got from them is apparently “moreno”, which is still used to refer to dark-skinned people and is also a surname, because surnames often derive from physical characteristics. (“Talk to José.” “Which José?” “The José with dark skin. José Moreno.”) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/6 "2014-07-24T04:47:10Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Actually I supect _“moretones”_ to mean bruises works the other way around, that is, you refer to bruises by that word because they get black-and-blue. They get black and blue in English; in Spanish they start _morados_ and later get \*amarillos \*(usually there is a _verde_ ring in between the _amarillo_ and _morado_, during the transition), _morados_ is a common name for bruises and _moretón_ is more of a superb bruise, a “moradón”; -on is often an intensifier. Lighter tones of purple would be called _granate, grana, púrpura_… rather than _morado_ (for example, Barça’s _azulgrana_ shirts, the bands are _azul_ and _grana(te)_). _Moreno_ means dark-skinned (naturally or with a tan) but also dark-haired. When used to refer to black people it’s a pun, as in “the dude with the perma-super-tan”, and can be considered offensive (depends on context and tone, etc etc, but what I mean is, the speaker may not mean any offense and the listener may still take it). ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/7 "2014-07-24T10:18:12Z")
Moretón is the standard word for “bruise” in Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/8 "2014-07-24T12:40:25Z")
In R A Lafferty’s _Fifth Mansions_, there is [a mansion called "Morada](http://books.google.com/books?id=AJ1yVXoMfkoC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=morada+color+of+snakes+in+shade&source=bl&ots=OLnSkAiKio&sig=bjOYYMqmtmmzNQ1By8byh_pdtZI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OvzQU-CpMqPC8QGxwYFw&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=morada%20color%20of%20snakes%20in%20shade&f=false)." > [@](#): > > (_Morada_," an ashen voice conveyed, besides meaning a dwelling place, means a sojourn; but _morada_ also means mulberry-colored, or violet or purple: the color of the sky at dusk in midwinter, the color of snakes in shade.") Just quoted because I love Lafferty. He was learned in several languages but also a big joker; take his erudition with a grain of salt. (What a pity that most of his work is out of print, except for two slender volumes of short stories in exquisitely expensive editions. And _Okla Hannali_, sold by Amazon or [the Choctaw Nation](http://store.choctawschool.com/detail.aspx?ID=47). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-spanish-word-morado/693887/9 "2014-07-24T13:29:11Z")
_Morada_ means home as well as (f)purple, that bit of trivia is true. _Morar_ is “to usually/frequently live in a place”, archaic but not so much that it wouldn’t be understood; nowadays you’d mostly find it in poetry. I was surprised by the “sojourn” bit as I thought a sojourn was a temporary thing whereas a _morada_ is permanent. I know word meanings change and all that, but m-w gives “sojourn” as “a temporary stay” whereas RAE gives the closest meaning of _morada_ as “place where someone stays for a relatively long time” - the time factor kind of makes them opposites, one is a temporary residence whereas the other is permanent. Maybe Lafferty was confused by the fact that in older stories, travelers would often look for a _morada_ where they could stop - but it wasn’t their _morada_ (home), it was that of those who’d let them stop in it for the night rather than sleeping outside; the term means that they’d be looking for private homes rather than inns (depending on where and when the story takes place, asking for an inn would have been unrealistic). What I can’t remember right now is the name for when two words are morphologically identical but it’s a coincidence, as in this case.