Saying ‘Good Morning’ Comes from White Slave Owners Mocking Black Enslaved People?

In April 2024, a video unfold on X (previously Twitter) and different social media platforms deriding a video that claimed the phrase “good morning” got here from “good mourning” — as in grief. 

A fast search on X utilizing the phrases “good morning racist” revealed that several more users posted the video, utilizing the same tone to disparage it.

The video, initially shared on TikTok, was posted in October 2023, and its creator claimed the expression originated as a type of mockery by white slave house owners in the direction of Black enslaved individuals. Person @outkast.naii explained:

It was actually a mockery in the direction of Black slaves. Throughout the slavery time, once they used to cry and mourn in grief over what occurred to any individual once they was whipped or killed, or tooken off to a different plantation, so it was their approach to make enjoyable of the Black slaves crying the night time prior. So they might ask them “Did you may have mourning? Did you may have cry?” And they’d chortle about it.

The video itself garnered greater than 140,000 views. The video unfold when viewers mocked or debunked it in reshares on TikTok, and gained much more visibility on X (archived). Probably the most current was posted in March 2024 on YouTube. The unique creator took word of the mocking reactions, nevertheless, and up to date the caption on the viral video to acknowledge the error:

READ THE CAPTION *my apologies, IT WASN’T the ORIGIN . I made a mistake saying that half #goodmourning #goodmorning #slaveryfacts #slaverydays

Snopes reached out to the creator of the video and can replace this publish if we hear again.

As different web customers accurately identified, the phrase “morning” doesn’t discover its origin in colonial instances or in slavery. The phrases “morning” and “mourning” are in reality homophones: phrases of various spelling, that means and origin that sound the identical.

Each phrases have a Germanic origin and adopted a transparent evolution by way of Previous English (English because it was used from the fifth century to the top of the eleventh century, practically 500 years earlier than the start of colonial instances in North America) and thru Center English (English used between the twelfth and the fifteenth century, simply earlier than colonial instances).

Mourning comes from Previous English “murnan,” in accordance with the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It means “to grieve,” but additionally “to fret,” or “to care.” 

“Morning” comes from the Center English “morn,” which itself got here from Previous English “morgen.” This phrase, which meant “daybreak,” additionally designated the time between daybreak and midday, additionally in accordance with the Merriam-Webster dictionary. In actual fact, the German phrase for morning remains to be “morgen.” The identical phrase gave rise to using “morgen” as a unit of land measure outlined by the “quantity of land a person can plough with a single blade dragged by an ox or a horse in a single morning.” This unit was adopted by international locations like Germany or the Netherlands and remains to be utilized in South Africa, a former Dutch colony. The land dimension would fluctuate, however in South Africa, it corresponds to about 2 acres.

The phrase “morn” then developed into “morning,” very like the phrase “even” — the top of the day — developed into “night.”