morwe

See also: morwę

Middle English

Alternative forms

• morewe, morȝe, morow, morowe, morrou, morue, morw
• moruwe (Early Middle English)
• marewe, maruwe (northern Herefordshire and Worcestershire)

Etymology

An apocopic form of morwen, with generalisation of preconsonantal loss of /n/; compare mayde and mayden.

West Midland forms with /a/ are apparently from an Old English development from /o/ to /ɑ/ between a labial and /l/, /r/, as in warpen, variant of werpen; they are recessive in Middle English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔrwə/, /ˈmɔrɔu̯(ə)/, /ˈmɔruː/
• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔriu̯(ə)/ (especially Kent, Southern, South Midland)
• IPA^(key): /ˈmariu̯(ə)/ (Northern Herefordshire and Worcestershire)

Noun

morwe (plural morwes)

1. morning
2. dawn
3. tomorrow

Derived terms

• amorwe
• morwynge
• tomorwe

Descendants

• English: morrow
• Scots: morrow, morra

References

• “mō̆rwe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• Jordan, Richard (1974),  Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)‎^[1], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 35, page 61.
• McIntosh, Angus; Samuels, M[ichael] L.; Benskin, Michael (2013) [1986], “morrow: marewe, maruwe, marnyng.”, in Michael Benskin, Margaret Laing, editors, eLALME: A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English‎^[2], Edinburgh: Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics, Feature Maps; revised November 2024.