| − | Back-formation from dialectal (Rutean) {{term|mošul|lang=ro}}, masculine of {{term|moša|lang=ro}} 'old woman; midwife', variant of standard {{term|moașă|lang=ro}} 'midwife'.<ref>Alexandru Ciorănescu, ''Dicționarul etimologic român'', s.v. "moș" (Tenerife: Universidad de la Laguna, 1958-1966).</ref><ref>''Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, ediția a II-a'', ed. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică Iorgu Iordan, s.v. "moș" (Univers Enciclopedic, 1998).</ref> More at {{l|ro|moașă}}. | + | Uncertain. Often considered a substratum word related to Albanian ''[[moshë]]'' (cf. Romanian feminine form {{term|moașă|lang=ro}}), but can also possibly be from {{etyl|la|ro}} ''[[annosus|annōsus]]'' ("aged, old, full of years"). (With a loss of the initial vowel as in some other cases (cf. ''[[mătușă]]'', ''[[noaten]]'', ''[[nămaie]]''), and the ''ș'' sound formed as with ''[[coș]]''. The change of ''n'' to ''m'' is more unusual, but has other instances as well (cf. ''[[măgar]]'', ''[[miel]]'', ''[[miță]]''). Its presence in all Eastern Romance languages and the addition of the prefix ''[[stră-]]'' also indicates that it is an old word and probably from a Latin source. <ref>[http://dexonline.ro./definitie/moș Romanian Explanatory Dictionary]</ref> |
