morgue
nounUK /mɔːɡ/ · US /moɹɡ/
Etymology Borrowed from French morgue. The second sense developed from the first, via "a prison examination room", probably with reference to the haughty attitude of the jailers.
1
Archaic A supercilious or haughty attitude; arrogance.
- They being newcomers, free from the western morgue so soon caught by Oriental Europeans, were particularly civil to me, even wishing to mix me a strong draught; but I was not so fortunate with all on board.1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 34:
2
A building or room where dead bodies are kept before their proper burial or cremation, (now) particularly in legal and law enforcement contexts.
- Librarian Talks of Newspaper Morgue1921 July 2, Joseph F. Kwapil, Fourth Estate, page 5:
- Shand: get down to the Record and the Trib. See what they've got on Elliot in their morgues.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 109:
- Derived terms
- Baltimorgue, morguelike