Teaching Mores

To teach more stands for the remark of decency, to teach behavior or to rebuke someone energetically and is a phrase that has become rather rare today , but one that can often be found in literature . Announcing "teaching mores" sometimes included subliminal or direct threats of violence, such as chastisement against children.

It has its origins in Latin , the word mos (plur .: mores ) means "custom, decency" or " morality ". The expression arose around the time of humanism (approx. 15th century) as part of the student and scholarly language of that time.

Examples of the use of the phrase:

"Muros & mores aedificavit. Here, Hugo Damianus, a prince who raised Moors and customs during his lifetime, liged." (Quote from the funeral sermon, 1744)

• Thaddäus Kofler SJ: "Muros & mores aedificavit. Here, Hugo Damianus, a prince who raised Moors and customs during his lifetime, liged."

Printed sermon on the anniversary of the death of Cardinal Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim , 1744

• Johann Nepomuk Nestroy : "The evil spirit Lumpazivagabundus"

"We'll teach you more

you dissolute fellows! "

• Ludwig Bechstein : "The fairy tale of the Seven Swabians":

"Bygott!" exclaimed Herr Schulz, "I want to teach you more, you thundering, wicked straw guys."

• The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Libretto: Emanuel Schikaneder ):

In the third scene of the first act, Monostatos sings:

"Just hurry! Just hurry!

Ha, did I still get you?

Just come with steel and iron;

Wait, I want to show you more.

• Adolph Freiherr Knigge to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing :

"Oh dear Lessing, as the younger of us two, it's not my place to want to teach you more, but what has to be, has to be ..."

• Friedrich Engels : "Can Europe disarm?"

"And when the non-commissioned officers have only been moved out of the secrecy of the barracks and military jurisdiction to the daylight of the school yard and the civil criminal process, then, I bet, our rebellious school children will also teach Mores, the worst former soldier-smuggler."

But also in the present the saying is occasionally reflected:

• The weekly newspaper Die Zeit in its 37/2001 issue on the topic of immigration :

“Mores the Minister” - The Greens are stubborn in the migration debate

• "Schwäbisches Tageblatt" from January 17th, 2005 :

"Teaching Mores with a shooting stick" - The western returns to the cinema

Individual evidence

1. ^ Thaddäus Kofler: Funeral speech on the anniversary of the death of Cardinal Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim , Ellwangen, 1744; (Digital scan)