The word "moerda" comes from the Latin "morda," meaning "to bite." It is commonly used in Spanish and Portuguese to mean "murder." The spelling of the word can be explained using the IPA phonetic transcription: /mɔ.ˈɛɾ.ða/. The "m" is pronounced as in "mango," the "o" as in "more," the "e" as in "egg," the "r" as in "red," the "d" as in "dog," and the "a" as in "father."