Morter Family History

Catalan: from morter ‘mortar’ (from Latin mortarium; see 2 below) perhaps applied as a metonymic occupational name for a spicer or a mason bricklayer or as a topographic name for someone who lived by a gully.

English (Norfolk): nickname from Middle English morter ‘mortar’ either ‘receptacle in which ingredients are pounded with a pestle’ (Old English mortere from Latin mortarium in the sense ‘receptacle for pounding’)

or ‘cement-like paste for bonding brickwork’ (Anglo-Norman morter mortier from Latin mortarium in the sense ‘product of pounding’).