mooring (n.)

"to fasten (a ship) in a particular location by or as by cables, anchors, etc.," late 15c., probably related to Old English mærels "mooring rope," via unrecorded *mærian "to moor," or possibly borrowed from Middle Low German moren or Middle Dutch maren "to moor," from West Germanic *mairojan. Related: Moored, mooring. French amarrer is from Dutch.

1744, "ropes, etc., by which a floating thing is confined or made fast," from mooring. Figurative sense of "that to which anything is fastened or by which it is held" is by 1851.