In terminology, moral (TR:627), as contrasted with “immoral” (TR:44), from Latin moralis "proper behavior of a person in society," literally "pertaining to manners," coined by Cicero (“On Fate”, 45BC) to translate Greek ethikos (see: ethics); from Latin mos (genitive moris) "one's disposition," akin to "mores, customs, manners", related to or from the past participle of Latin mori ‘to die’, symbolized by the arrival of Mor, the Greco-Roman goddess of death. [1]
Etymology
The etymology of the term "moral", as a specific term, is generally accredited to Roman scholar Cicero, said to have coined the term in his 45BC work "On Fate", conceptualized as an equivalent of the Greek term ethics; the opening section of which reads as follows: [2]
“That branch of philosophy which, because it relates to manners, the Greeks usually term ethics [from: ήθος or ‘ethos’], the Latins have hitherto called the philosophy of manners. But it may be well for one who designs to enrich the Latin language, to call it moral science. And here we have to explain the nature and force of certain propositions which the Greeks term ‘axioms’. When these propositions relate to the future, and speak of possibilities and impossibilities, it is difficult to determine their precise force. Such propositions necessarily refer to the amount of possibility, and are only resolvable by logic, which I call the art of reasoning.”
“You don’t need religion to have morals. If you can’t determine right from wrong then you lack empathy, not religion.”— Anonymous (c.2001), CultureOfEmpathy.com (Ѻ)
“A theory of thermodynamics is not, and never will be, a moral theory. By moral theory, I mean, at the simplest level, any sustained attempt to give an account of how moral agents ought to live and act.”— Robert Louden (1992), Morality and Moral Theory [4]