Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of mores, a set of moral norms or customs derived from generally accepted practices.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the French mœurs ("ways, character, morals"), from Latin mōrēs ("ways, character, morals"), the plural of mōs.

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Examples

  • The French term moeurs or what today would be called culture captures the idea that the humanity of human beings is expressed in the distinctive practices that they adopt as solutions to the challenges of existence.

    Colonialism Kohn, Margaret 2006

  • While Lucien was writing a column which was to set a new fashion in journalism and reveal a fresh and original gift, Lousteau indited an article of the kind described as moeurs — a sketch of contemporary manners, entitled The Elderly

    A Distinguished Provincial at Paris 2007

  • The French word moeurs corresponds best with the German.

    The Poems of Schiller — Third period Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller 1782

  • The French word moeurs corresponds best with the German.

    The Works of Frederich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller 1782

  • About "Les moeurs, la culture, la langue" ... absorb joyfully whatever you can, wherever you are.

    moeurs - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Autre temps, autres moeurs, as Joey Barton will no doubt be tweeting any day now.

    Joey Barton's robust Twitter chatter is sadly far from riotous | Martin Kelner 2011

  • About "Les moeurs, la culture, la langue"... absorb joyfully whatever you can, wherever you are.

    moeurs - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Need a translation – Une affaire des moeurs – a sex case??? or an affair of manners, customs?? and is this slang?

    rue89 2008

  • Liberation described Polanski's crime as an "affaires des moeurs", a banal case of mores, rather than a convicted case of "illegal sex with a minor".

    Karin Badt: Polanski: What's On Trial? 2009

  • The intrepid French daily Le Monde has described Polanski's crime as an affaire de moeurs -- a moral transgression, or sexual misconduct.

    Anna Wainwright: Welcome Back, Mr. Polanski 2009

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