古フランス語のmote, rampart, bermから、ラテン語のmota, rampart, hill, castle on a hillから、原ゲルマン語の*muto, mud, sludgeから、PIE *smut, sludgy, dirtyから、語源はsmut, mudと同じ。
英語の語源
moat
moat: [14] The word moat originally meant a ‘mound’ or ‘embankment’ (this has since been hived off into the specialized form motte). The word was borrowed from Old French mote or motte ‘hill, mound’, whose ultimate source was probably a Gaulish mutt or mutta. The use of the word for the mound on which a castle keep was built led in Old French or Anglo-Norman to its reapplication to the ditch surrounding such a mound.
moat (n.)
mid-14c., from Old French mote "mound, hillock, embankment; castle built on a hill" (12c.; Modern French motte), from Medieval Latin mota "mound, fortified height," of unknown origin, perhaps from Gaulish mutt, mutta. Sense shifted in Norman French from the castle mound to the ditch dug around it. As a verb, "to surround with a moat," early 15c.
例文
1. The castle had a deep moat which emptied into the lake.
城には湖に流れ込む深い堀がある。
2.A fire on the city gate brings disaster to the fish in the moat .
城門が火事になり、池の魚に災いした。
3.The Moat House stood not far from the rough forest road.
モルトブルクは高低差のある森の大通りからそれほど遠くない場所にそびえ立っている。
4.The medieval town was fortified with a high wall and a deep moat .