Moorhens in lowland lake beside my house? Why the word moor?

euser1984

Why are they called Moorhens when they don't live in moors? They seem to be called marsh hens too and the lake beside me would fit that description.

Thanks.

OpenYourEyes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_moorhen#Name

The name mor-hen has been recorded in English since the 13th century.[5] The word moor here is an old sense meaning marsh;[5] the species is not usually found in moorland. An older name, common waterhen, is more descriptive of the bird's habitat.

dodderangler

Wasn't moor also a word used to describe something or someone black?
That's what my understanding of moorhen was. Meaning black hen

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

dodderangler wrote: »

Wasn't moor also a word used to describe something or someone black?
That's what my understanding of moorhen was. Meaning black hen

Afraid not. They were also called marsh hens before moorhen was the accepted name.

The Middle english word Mor meant a marsh and not a moor as we know them today.

Desmo

Moorhen seems to be an old name as one of the German names for it is Moorhuhn

tisgrand

dodderangler wrote: »

Wasn't moor also a word used to describe something or someone black?
That's what my understanding of moorhen was. Meaning black hen

you are perhaps confusing the term 'black moor' as in a common breed of goldfish with the Moorish culture of Spain responsible for the building of some of its southern cities?

recedite

Blackamoor was an old name once used for a North African moor, a people who colonised Spain for a while before being hounded out. The goldfish got its name from its supposed resemblance.

The mor in moorhen was the saxon name for marshes and fens such as found in Somerset in the south of england. Oddly enough, the word seems to have transferred its location (and meaning) to become synonymous with the upland areas in Yorkshire in the north of England. The only real connection between the two usages is that the land is "marginal" or of little use for agriculture.

Whereas in Yorkshire, they already had a word for that kind of land; fells. That derives from the Danish/Norse conquest of the northern areas. Fjall (fell) was the barren heathery area of a hill above the treeline and Dahl (dale) was the valley below. In Ireland there are a few instances of the viking words for coastal features, but as those people didn't move inland much, we retained slieve and glen as the normal mountain/valley placenames. Islands along the east coast such as Irelands Eye and Dalkey incorporate the nordic word "eye" meaning island. Marshes such as those at the bird sanctuary in Kilcoole incorporate "low" meaning a marsh, in the name, ie Wicklow and Arklow. "Wick" is associated with harbours, so Wicklow is a harbour in a marsh. Smerwick in the SW and Reykjavik in Iceland also being named as harbours. Waterford and Wexford being fiords.
I find it interesting to look at placenames and see how they reflect the language of a tribe that once lived there. So no surprise anyway that the saxon word "mor" or moor has never really caught on in Ireland, either as the original marsh meaning or in the later "wrong" version where it was used in Yorkshire to mean a "fell". As a tribal group, they never reached Ireland. I don't think there is really any word commonly used in Ireland for that specific heathery upland type of habitat, devoid of trees. Its almost as if there is a gap in the vocabulary. Maybe it was all too confusing, and we just opted out.