Mormon
See also: mormon, mormón, mórmon, and Mórmon
English
Etymology
Believers are called Mormons after the Book of Mormon (and have been since the 1830s),[1] which takes its name from the prophet whom they believe compiled it and/or the Waters of Mormon mentioned in it.[2]
Various implausible etymologies have been proposed, usually in attempts to discredit or defend the Mormon faith.[3]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɔːmən/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmɔɹmən/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)mən
Audio (US) (file)
Proper noun
Mormon
- In Mormonism, an ancient American prophet who compiled the Book of Mormon.
Derived terms
- Mormonism
Translations
ancient prophet
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Noun
Mormon (plural Mormons)
- (originally derogatory, sometimes proscribed) A person who believes in the Mormon religion, which worships Elohim, views Joseph Smith as his prophet and has the Bible and the Book of Mormon as its main scriptures.
- 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 1, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, OCLC 6868219:
- That year, 1871, had marked a change which had been gradually coming in the lives of the peace-loving Mormons of the border.
- Synonyms: Latter-day Saint, LDS
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Coordinate terms
- (religionists) religionist; agnostic, Asatruar, atheist, Baháʼí, Buddhist, Christian, deist, Druid, Druze, Eckist, heathen, Hindu, Jain, Jedi, Jew, Jucheist, Mormon, Mormonist, Muslim, Odinist, pagan, Pastafarian, Raëlian, Rastafarian, Rodnover, Samaritan, Shintoist, Sikh, Taoist, Unitarian Universalist, Wiccan, Yahwist, Yazidi, Zoroastrian (Category: en:Religion) [edit]
Derived terms
- exmo
- Jack Mormon
- Molly Mormon (Molly Mormon)
Descendants
- → Hopi: moomona
- → Fijian: momani
- → Samoan: Mamona
- → Hawaiian: Moramona
- → Spanish: mormón
- → Japanese: モルモン
Translations
member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Adjective
Mormon (not comparable)
- (sometimes proscribed) Of, or pertaining to, the faith established by Joseph Smith, Jr.
Derived terms
- Mormon cricket
Translations
pertaining to the faith established by Joseph Smith, Jr
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References
- An early use is in the title of the 1839 Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons, Or Latter Day Saints, from the State of Missouri.
- Within the Book of Mormon, the waters are said by the book to have been named by "the king" (taken in context to be King Noah).
- See Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 13 (2015, →ISBN. The most prominent pro-Mormon etymology is the one, suggested in an 1834 Times and Seasons letter, that the term derives from English more + a supposed Egyptian *mon (“good”), which, however, modern scholarship considers figurative at best — see Paul Y. Hoskisson, What's in a Name? Mormon part 1 (Insights 32/2, 2012) and part 2 (Insights 32/3, 2012). Matthew Bowen suggested that the name derives from Egyptian mr(j) (“to love, desire”). On the anti-Mormon side, Eber D. Howe suggested in 1834 that "The English word Mormon [...] is the English termination of the Greek word, "Mormoo," which we find defined in an old obsolete Dictionary "bug-bear, hob-goblin, raw head, and bloody bones"; Hoskisson writes that "almost any knowledgeable reader, even in 1834, would have recognized that this definition is not only fabricated but downright silly." An anonymous editorialist wrote in 1841 that "[In] the reformed Egyptian tongue, [...] Mormon [is] a writer of wicked, absurd, fictitious nonsense, for evil purposes, to make sorcerors", which the Interpreter calls "laughable".