merci

Pronunciation

• IPA (Belgium, France): /mɛʁ.si/^[1]
• IPA (Canada): /maɛ̯ʁ.si/^[1]
• IPA (Louisiana): /mæ(ɾ).si/^[1]

Forms

merci f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French mercit, inherited from Latin mercēs (“wages, reward; price, (Late Latin) favour, mercy”), accusative “mercēdem”.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin word meant “wages, reward, pay, interest”; in Late Latin it took the senses “price” and “favour, grace shown in sparing someone”, and Christian writers used it for kindness, pity and divine grace.^[3][2][4] Rey and Littré relate it to merx (“merchandise”), the GLLF to mereō (“to earn, deserve”).^[3][7][8]

Cognate with Italian mercé, Old Occitan merce, Catalan mercè, Spanish merced and Portuguese mercê.^[9][7] Spanish “vuestra merced” “your grace” became the pronoun Spanish usted.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Séquence de sainte Eulalie (881), meaning “grace, mercy, pity”: the poem asks that Christ have mercit on us after death.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “mercy” survives in phrases no longer clearly understood: crier merci (about 1135) and demander merci (1176–1181) “to beg for mercy”, sans merci “pitiless” (1181–1190), Dieu merci “by the grace of God” (about 1100) and à la merci de “at the discretion of” (1538).^[2][3][4] In courtly language it was the favour a lover won from his lady (about 1200), whence le don de merci (1462) and La Fontaine's don d'amoureuse merci.^[2][3]

As a word of thanks it appears as granz merciz in the Couronnement de Louis (about 1135); Bloch and Wartburg trace it to phrases such as vostre merci “thanks to you”.^[2][4] Long feminine, it became masculine (Marot, 1539) because the invariable old adjective in grand merci was taken for a masculine, grand merci passed into English as gramercy.^[3][4] Merci as a polite refusal dates from 1897.^[3] The verb remercier (14th century) was formed through the old verb mercier.^[4]

Timeline

• 881 – Mercit in the Séquence de sainte Eulalie.^[2]
• c. 1100 – Dieu merci in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• c. 1135 – Granz merciz “many thanks”, and crier merci.^[2]
• c. 1200 – A lady's favour, in the Châtelain de Coucy.^[2]
• 14th century – Remercier, in Froissart.^[4]
• 1538 – À la merci de.^[2]
• 1539 – Masculine un grand merci in Marot.^[2][4]
• 1897 – Merci as a polite refusal.^[3]

Meanings

Interjection

1. Thank you: merci beaucoup, merci bien.^[1][3]
2. No, thank you, as a polite refusal: Encore du café ? – Merci.^[3]

Noun

1. (masculine) A thank-you: un grand merci.^[2][3]
2. (feminine, literary) Mercy, pity: crier merci, une lutte sans merci.^[10][2]
3. À la merci de: at the mercy of.^[10][3]
4. Dieu merci: thank God, fortunately.^[10][3]

Word family

• remercier
• remerciement

Related words

• Latin mercēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/2, 15b
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert