Talk:Morro Bay, California

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Morro Bay, California article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1

California Low‑importance

	California portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject California, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CaliforniaWikipedia:WikiProject CaliforniaTemplate:WikiProject CaliforniaCalifornia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Cities

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cities, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of cities, towns and various other settlements on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CitiesWikipedia:WikiProject CitiesTemplate:WikiProject CitiesWikiProject Cities articles

Name of the rock

About the origin of "Morro," I have heard the rock was thus named because it looked like a turban worn by the Moors. Do you have a source that says otherwise? Sincerely, BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 21:16, 30 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Morro is standard Spanish for a small, rocky mountain (usually round in shape, but not always the case). It has zero to do with anything Moorish, that is pure fantasy and false etymology. Moor is Moro (one r) in Spanish, they aren't close. Sample cognates: Morro del Tulcán (Tulcan Hill), Morro de Arica (Arica Hill), or even El Morro National Monument. No reputable source supports the claim that "Morro" is a misspelling of "Moro" as in "Moor", but here are some sources supporting the proper definition (as a rocky mountain/hill, usually rounded):

I hope that helps clear the matter up!

Best, Cristiano Tomás (talk) 22:23, 30 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

According to the sources you provided, the word morro carries the meaning of rounded. There is controversy here as well, where Morro supposedly means "anything round like a head". Frankly, I believe we should leave it out at this point because it is not necessary to the article. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:04, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Here, the word is identified as promontory. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:08, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Here is another thorough article stating that Morro means "anything shaped like a head," stemming from an old French term, mourre, which, I believe, is reflected in the French faire une moue, which means "to protrude both lips in a rounded fashion." BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 04:15, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Using dated English language newspapers to support a specific interpretation of the definition is not reliable. Morro is not an obscure word, it is recognizable to any Spanish or Portuguese speaker across the world as simply "hill". Some regions and people may interpret as a word specifically as a rounded hill, others as a tall promontory, but the simply unifying factor is that they all describe what in English we would call a hill. Attend to any reliable Spanish dictionary, from the RAE's Diccionario de la lengua española, which lists it as Monte pequeño o peñasco redondeado (small hill or rounded rock) to the Dictionary of Mexican Spanish, which lists it as Peñasco o monte pelado que sobresale entre los demás (A rock or bare mountain that sticks out in its environment). The unifying definition is that it is a hill, regardless of how you quantify it. Similarly, trying to link its etymology is ridiculous; this town is named after the Spanish word, whatever French term you're referring to is irrelevant. Cristiano Tomás (talk) 04:23, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]