Unmoored

Today’s Daily Post Writing Prompt: Unmoored

So…another word I don’t know.

(Heading to Google)

The word unmoored is past tense for “release the moorings of.”

Ok…moor.  What’s what?

“A tract of open uncultivated upland; a heath” or “a tract of open land preserved for shooting.”

What the heck is a heath?!

An area of open uncultivated land, especially in Britain, with characteristic vegetation of heather, gorse, and coarse grasses.

a dwarf shrub with small leathery leaves and small pink or purple bell-shaped flowers, characteristic of heathland and moorland.

Well, ok, here’s what I knew about the word “moor.” It’s an English word.  That’s it, that’s what I knew.

So, to unmoor something is to release uncultivated land, which is land not reserved for planting and crops.  So, in essence, unusable land.  Backtracking further, when one unmoors, one is releasing land that can be used for something other than farming planting, or is incapable of cultivation.  And apparently, there is heath there.

So I learned a few new words out of all of this – unmoor, heath, and moor.  But I knew what cultivated and uncultivated meant.

So…heath….

heath-140448

(Source)

Mooring and unmooring

1

(Source)

And uncultivated

uncultivated_land2c_gogar_-_geograph-org-uk_-_1059298

(Source)

Sometimes, using photos to describe something is easier than the actual words.  But then again, how would we learn anything new?

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