From Latin 'mors' (death), from PIE *mer- (to die) — same root as 'murder,' 'mortgage,' and Greek 'ambrosia.'
Subject to death; causing or liable to cause death; of or relating to human beings as subject to death.
From Old French 'mortel' (deadly, fatal), from Latin 'mortālis' (subject to death, human), from 'mors,' genitive 'mortis' (death). The Latin noun derives from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tós (dead), from the root *mer- (to die, to disappear). This PIE root is one of the most productive in Indo-European languages, yielding Sanskrit 'mṛtá' (dead), Greek 'brotós' (mortal, human — from an earlier *mrotós), and Old English 'morþ' (death, murder). The word entered Middle English in the fourteenth century carrying both its literal sense (subject to
The word 'mortgage' is literally a 'death pledge' — from Old French 'mort' (dead) and 'gage' (pledge). The name reflects the medieval understanding that the pledge 'dies' when either the debt is repaid or the property is seized through foreclosure. Every homeowner thus carries a 'death pledge' in their financial vocabulary.