I recently read in a book that there is an etymological relationship between the Latin words amor & mort but no citation is given. Looking at an online etymological dictionary (Wiktionary) did not confirm this. Is anyone familiar with any sources claiming a relationship?
1 Answer
Presumably the basis of this made-up etymology is the fact that the words share a sequence of three letters. But amor comes from the root am- "love" plus the suffix -or, which is a common way to form abstract nouns. It does not contain an element mor that might be compared to mors (and even if it did, that wouldn't get us very far); the only thing shared between am- and mort-, the stem of mors, is the m. There is no relationship between the two words.