moral [LME] Moral is from Latin moralis, from mos, ‘custom’, (plural) mores ‘morals’, also behind morose [M16th]. As a noun the word was first used to translate Moralia, the Latin title of St Gregory the Great’s exposition of the Book of Job. It was subsequently applied to the works of various classical writers. In the mid 18th century the identical French word was adopted into English and an ‘e’ added to the English spelling to indicate the French stress on the second syllable, to produce morale.