merci

Forms

merci f^[1]

• mercit, merchit, merchi, mercet, marci, mercy^[2][3]

The oldest texts write mercit, the Passion mercet, and merci appears in the 10th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mercēs (“wages, reward”), through its accusative.^[1][3][5][6] The Latin noun is formed from merx (“merchandise”).^[7][1] In popular Latin it took the sense of price, whence favour, found in Merovingian Latin, and then the grace granted in sparing someone.^[5] Medieval Latin used it for goodwill and pity, a ruler's grace and his free discretion,^[8] and Christian writers for heavenly grace.^[4]

Its Romance cognates include Italian mercè and Spanish merced.^[5][9] Gamillscheg traces the phrases meaning “by the grace of God” to an old use of the ablative as a sentence adverb with the person in the oblique case.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is mercit in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, which the TLFi dates to 881 and the OGR and Tobler–Lommatzsch to the 9th century or about 900, in the sense of grace, mercy and pity.^[6][11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant the grace of sparing someone, and Old French built set phrases on it: crïer merci “to beg for mercy” about 1135, sanz merci “without pity” in Chrétien's Perceval, and estre en la merci d'aucun “to be at someone's discretion” in Erec et Enide.^[6] In Chrétien it is the pardon granted at the end of a fight, and an interjection for begging it.^[12] From about 1200 it was also the favour a lover hopes for from his lady.^[6][3]

Phrases such as vostre merci “by your grace” turned it into a formula of thanks, whence merci “thanks” and the verb for thanking,^[9] and Bloch and Wartburg date its use as a term of politeness to the 14th century.^[5] granz merciz already thanks someone about 1135.^[6] Old French also used the word for a fine set at the lord's discretion and for a kind of due,^[3][13] and Spanish vuestra merced, the same courtesy formula, gave the pronoun Spanish usted.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 900 – mercit in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (881 by the TLFi's dating).^[11][6]
• c. 1000 – mercet and mercit in the Passion de Clermont.^[14][15]
• c. 1000 – merci in the Vie de saint Léger.^[16][6]
• c. 1100 – Dieu mercit in the Chanson de Roland.^[6]
• c. 1135 – crïer merci and granz merciz in the Couronnement de Louis.^[6]
• 1165–1170 – estre en la merci d'aucun in Erec et Enide.^[6]
• early 13th century – the earliest Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• 1539 – masculine grand merci in Marot.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. mercy, pardon granted by sparing someone.^[12][2]
2. pity, compassion; the mercy of God.^[2][13]
3. discretion, will (estre en la merci de).^[6][17]
4. favour, grace; the favour a lady grants her lover.^[17][3]
5. thanks; as an interjection, “thank you” or “mercy!”.^[2][12]
6. reward, wages.^[17]
7. (law) an amercement, a fine at the lord's discretion.^[2][13]
8. a title of courtesy, “Your Grace”.^[13]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word from the beginning of the 13th century and lists the spellings marci, merchi, mercie, mercit and mercy.^[2] Insular use was strongest in law: beside mercy and thanks the AND records the amercement, phrases for putting oneself at mercy and for incurring an amercement, and Dieu merci “thank God”.^[2] Middle English merci came from Old French,^[18] and Etymonline dates English mercy from the late 12th century.^[19]

Word family

• mercier
• merciable

Descendants

• French merci^[1]
• Norman merci^[1]
• Middle English merci (borrowed; → English mercy)^[1]

Usage notes

The word is headed merci in Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DÉCT, the AND and the DMF, and the FEW treats it under Latin mercēs.^{[20][12][2][3]} The noun mercier “mercer” has a separate source, Old French merz “merchandise”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. merci
3. ^ a b c d e f g Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/2:15
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. merci
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 443
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5517
10. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 651
11. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. EulalieB
12. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. merci
13. ^ a b c d Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. merci
14. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. PassionA
15. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. merci
16. ^ UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. SLégerA
17. ^ a b c Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
18. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
19. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
20. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 5:1484