morgue
UK[mɔːɡ]US[mɔːrɡ]
n
A building or room where dead bodies are kept temporarily, especially for identification or until burial or cremation.
n
A collection of information, such as past newspaper articles or reference files, kept for future use (used especially in journalism).
Etymology
The word 'morgue' entered English in the early 19th century from French. Its origin is traced to the name of a specific building in Paris, the Morgue, which was originally a place in the Paris morgue where bodies were displayed for identification by the public. The French term itself is believed to derive from an archaic verb morguer, meaning "to look at solemnly" or "to face," related to the act of staring or being stared at, which aptly describes the purpose of the identification process. This journey from a specific location name to a general term for a mortuary perfectly illustrates how place names can evolve into common nouns describing their function.
Analysis
The word 'morgue' is a simplex loanword from French. It does not contain separable morphemes in its modern English spelling.
Examples
The unidentified victim's body was taken to the city morgue.
Reporters often search the newspaper's morgue for background information on a story.
The police asked the family to come to the morgue for formal identification.