Etymologically
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merry

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmɛɹi/; /ˈmɛəɹi/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English murie (later mirie, mery),[2][3] inherited from Old English myriġe (“pleasing, agreeable”),[4][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *murgijaz,[2][3][6] cognate with Old High German murg (“short”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gamaurgjan, “to shorten”),[2][7][8] and outside Germanic with Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”) and Latin brevis (“short”),[2][8][5] from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”).[2][4] The leap from "short" to "pleasant" is explained as making time seem short by passing it pleasantly,[6][8][2] compare Old Norse skemta (“to amuse oneself”) from skammr (“short”), and German Kurzweil (“amusement”), literally "short while".[2][9] The modern spelling merry is a Kentish form.[9] mirth is from the same base.[6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pleasing, agreeable, delightful, of things: Old English, before 899, in Alfred's translation of Boethius.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle English merry described pleasant things rather than happy people: pleasant music, places, weather (as in a merry wind for sailing) and looks, senses that died out between 1275 and 1785.[5] The sense "full of lively enjoyment" emerged in the 14th century,[6][11] and of a tale or jest, amusing, from about 1390, in Chaucer.[5][11] "Slightly drunk" is from the 16th century[11] and is still British informal use.[12] merriment is from 1576, and merry-andrew, a clown, from 1673, in Dryden.[2]

Timeline

  • before 899 – pleasing, agreeable.[2][5]
  • before 1200 – murie, joyous.[2]
  • c. 1390 – of a tale, amusing.[5]
  • 16th century – tipsy.[11]
  • 1576 – merriment.[2]
  • 1673 – merry-andrew.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Cheerful and lively; full of fun and good spirits.
  2. (British informal) Slightly drunk.
  3. (archaic) Pleasant, delightful.

Word family

  • merrily
  • merriness
  • merriment
  • merry-go-round
  • merrymaker
  • merrymaking
  • merry-andrew
  • merrythought

Usage notes

In dialect a different merry is the wild cherry; it comes from French merise, a blend of amer (bitter) and cerise (cherry), whose final s was taken for a plural.[8][7][13]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)