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merry

adj
/ˈmɛ.ɹi//ˈmɛ.ɹi/US

Etymology

From Middle English myrie, merie, mery, from Old English myrġe, myriġe (“pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious”), from Proto-West Germanic *murgī (“short, slow, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *murguz (“short, slow”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”). Cognate with Scots mery, mirry (“merry”), Middle Dutch mergelijc (“pleasant, agreeable, joyful”), Norwegian dialectal myrjel (“small object, figurine”), Latin brevis (“short, small, narrow, shallow”), Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”). Doublet of brief.

  1. inherited from *mréǵʰus✻
  2. inherited from *murguz✻
  3. inherited from *murgī✻ — “short, slow, leisurely”
  4. inherited from myrġe
  5. inherited from myrie

Definitions

  1. Jolly and full of high spirits

    Jolly and full of high spirits; happy.

    • We had a very merry Christmas.
    • I am neuer merry when I heare ſweet muſique.
    • I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

  2. Festive and full of fun and laughter.

    • Everyone was merry at the party.
    • If I have the chance, I will make our worshipful Sheriff pay right well for that which he hath done to me. Maybe I may bring him some time into Sherwood Forest and have him to a right merry feast with us.

  3. Brisk

    • The play moved along at a merry pace.
    • The car moved at a merry clip.
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight.

      • a merry jest
      • There eke my feeble barke a while may ſtay, / Till mery wynd and weather call her thence away.

    2. drunk

      drunk; tipsy

      • Some of us got a little merry at the office Christmas party.

    3. An English wild cherry.

    4. A surname transferred from the nickname. Originally a nickname for a merry person.

    5. A female given name from merry.

    6. A diminutive of the female given name Mercy.

      • 'Is he handsome, Pa?' inquired the younger daughter. 'Silly Merry!' said the eldest: Merry being fond for Mercy. 'What is the premium, Pa? tell us that.'

    7. A diminutive of the male given name Meredith.

The neighborhood

Derived

be on one's merry way, continue on one's merry way, go on one's merry way, like merry hell, make merry, Mary-marry-merry merger, merrily, merriment, merriness, Merriweather, merry-andrew, merry as a cricket, merry as a grig, merrybell, merry chase, merry Christmas, merry cocker, merry company, merry dance, merry dancers, merrydom, merry-go-around, merry-go-down, merry-go-round, merry-go-sorry, merry-go-whirl, Merry Hill, Merry Lees, merrymaker, merry-maker, merry-making, merrymaking, merryman, merrymeeting, merry-meeting, merry men, merrythought, merry-totter, merry widow, merry Xmas · +3 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at merry. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01merry02jolly03merriment04playful05frolicsome06frolicking07frolics08frolic

A definitional loop anchored at merry. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at merry

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA