mo
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English mo, from Old English mā, from Proto-Germanic *maiz, from a comparative form of Proto-Indo-European *mə-. Cognate with Swedish mer, Danish mer; and with Irish mó, Albanian më. See also more, most.
Adjective
mo (not comparable)
- (archaic, dialectal) Greater in amount, quantity, or number (of discrete objects, as opposed to more, which was applied to substances)
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XXII:
- Nether durste eny man from that daye forth axe hym eny moo questions.
- c. 1380, William Langland, Piers Plowman
- With that ran there a route of ratones at ones,
- And smale mys myd hem, mo then a thousande
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XXII:
Etymology 2
Abbreviation of month.
Etymology 3
Clipping of moment.
Etymology 4
Clipping of homo, itself a short form of homosexual.
Etymology 5
Clipping of more, non-rhotic dialects, notably African American Vernacular English. Compare fo' (“for; four”), ho (“whore”).
Alternative forms
Etymology 7
Clipping.
Noun
mo (plural mos)
- (prison slang) A molester.
- 2018, James Kühnel, Carceration State
- The Idaho prison is full of cho-mos (child molesters), mos (molesters), and all types of sexual predators that have engaged in some type of abnormal sexual acts.
- 2018, James Kühnel, Carceration State
Related terms
Adangme
Albanian
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Albanian *mē, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁ (a prohibitive particle).
Alemannic German
Etymology
From Middle High German man, from Old High German man, from Proto-Germanic *mann-. Cognate with German Mann, Dutch man, English man, Icelandic maður, Swedish man, Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna).
References
- “mo” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Angguruk Yali
Dongxiang
Etymology
From Proto-Mongolic *mör (“trail, path”), compare Mongolian мөр (mör, “road, path”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mo/, [mʷo]
Esperanto
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
- IPA(key): /mo/
- Hyphenation: mo
Irish
Alternative forms
- m’ (used before vowel sounds)
Etymology
From Old Irish mo, mu, from Proto-Celtic *moy, from Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)moy, clitic oblique case of *éǵh₂.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mˠə/
Determiner
mo (triggers lenition)
See also
Number | Person (and gender) | Conjunctive (emphatic) |
Disjunctive (emphatic) |
Possessive determiner |
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First | mé (mise) |
mo L m' before vowel sounds | |
Second | tú (tusa)1 |
thú (thusa) |
do L d' before vowel sounds | |
Third masculine | sé (seisean) |
é (eisean) |
a L | |
Third feminine | sí (sise) |
í (ise) |
a H | |
Plural | First | muid, sinn (muidne, muide), (sinne) |
ár E | |
Second | sibh (sibhse)1 |
bhur E | ||
Third | siad (siadsan) |
iad (iadsan) |
a E |
Further reading
- "mo" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
- Entries containing “mo” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
- Entries containing “mo” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.
Italian
Kalasha
Mandarin
Romanization
mo
Usage notes
- English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
Mauritian Creole
See also
Norman
Northern Sami
Pronunciation
- (Kautokeino) IPA(key): /ˈmoː/
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology 1
Believed to be from the noun moe.
Etymology 2
From Old Norse moðr.
Alternative forms
Etymology 4
From Old Norse moð.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology 1
Believed to be from the noun moe.
Etymology 2
From Old Norse moðr.
Alternative forms
Etymology 4
From Old Norse moð.
Alternative forms
Samoan
Scottish Gaelic
Swedish
Tuvaluan
Westrobothnian
Etymology
From Old Norse móðr (“emotion, anger,”) from Proto-Germanic *mōdaz, whence also English mood. Influenced by French mode, from Latin modus. In the sense ’anger’ replaced by sinn. For the sense ’method’ compare me n.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /múː/, [mɯ́ᵝː] (example of pronunciation)
- Rhymes: -úːð
- (ð-dropping) Rhymes: -úː, -úːð
- (ð-r merger) Rhymes: -úːð, -úːr
Noun
Yao
< 0 | 1 | 2 > |
---|---|---|
Cardinal : mo | ||
Usage notes
This number follows a noun and takes the noun class characteristic prefix, e.g. libweta limo (one box). See the Yao language article on Wikipedia for details on noun class prefixes.