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[Surname] Re: Mavros
in reply to a message by Anon.
Melas is indeed a greek work for dark.
However, mavros -- or rather "mauros" or "amauros" -- mean "dimly seen, dim, faint, baffling sight" (as per Liddel-Scott)and was used as a synonym of "black: in classical times. In modern Greek, it certainly meaqns black. The word "Moor" itself is derived from the Latin "Maurus" via the Greek "mauros" as per teh Oxford Englisg Dictionary.
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It looks like I was deceived. The bit about Mavros deriving from an African language is on http://www.takeourword.com/TOW189/page2.html Funny enough, they also mention the Oxford English dictionary as their source. But it's certainly not in the edition I have! I should have been more sceptical, because I did notice that they think that Morocco also derives from Mavros, and it definitely does not...
Regards,
Obie
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