Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian mere sea (West Frisian mar lake), Middle Dutch mēre , meer sea, lake (Dutch meer lake), Old Saxon meri sea, lake (Middle Low German mēr , meer , (rare) mēre , German regional (Low German) Meer ), Old High German meri , mer sea, lake (Middle High German mer sea, German Meer ), Old Icelandic marr sea (Icelandic mar ), Faroese marrur marsh, fen, Norwegian mar- sea (in compounds), Old Swedish mar sea (Swedish mar- (in compounds), Swedish regional mar shallow water, marshy inlet or lake, fen), Danish mar- sea (in compounds; Old Swedish mär , Old Danish mær sea, are borrowings < Middle Low German), Gothic mari- (in the compound marisaiws lake), marei sea < a Germanic base cognate with classical Latin mare sea ( > French mer , Occitan mar , Catalan mar , Spanish mar , Portuguese mar , Italian mare , Romanian mare ), Gaulish mori , Early Irish muir (Irish muir ), Old Welsh mor (Welsh môr ), Breton mor , Old Church Slavonic morje sea, Russian more sea, Old Prussian mary , Lithuanian marė , and Latvian mare , all in sense ‘lagoon, bay’. The above-mentioned Germanic cognates chiefly represent a Germanic i -stem, and are variously masculine and neuter; the existence of a Germanic īn -stem from the same base is shown by Gothic marei , feminine (the occasional appearance of the feminine gender in some West Germanic forms, especially in Old Saxon, is probably a reflection of this). Other Germanic words ultimately from the same base are (with ablaut variation) probably moor n.¹ and (with suffixation) marsh n.¹ and probably march n.¹; the original sense of the Germanic base was probably ‘body of standing water, wetland’.Old Frisian mār ditch (West Frisian mear drainage pool), Middle Dutch māre , maer pool, pond, drainage channel (Dutch regional maar , frequently as an element in place names), Middle Low German (East Friesland) mār , māre drainage channel, German regional (Cologne) Maar crater-lake (see maar n.), may perhaps represent a parallel formation from the same base, or probably more likely, a borrowing < Gallo-Romance: compare Old French (chiefly northern) mare pond, pool, swamp (12th cent.), post-classical Latin mara pond, pool (from 11th cent., chiefly in British and northern French sources); mar- forms in Middle English have perhaps been influenced by these words (although they might also derive from sporadic forms with unlengthened stem vowel and subsequent lowering of e to a before r : compare E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §§67–8). The Gallo-Romance etymon of these words itself probably represents a Germanic loanword ultimately from the same base as mere . In quot. a1530 at sense 1 mere is perhaps < Middle French mer sea ( < classical Latin mare ), although the collocation mer Mediterrane is not attested in French before 1512. Recorded in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. in sense 2 from a number of northern, north midland, and eastern English counties as well as Scotland; and in sense 4 from Yorkshire and Suffolk (compare also quot. 1995 at sense 4 from Lincolnshire).

Etymology: Cognate with Middle Dutch mēre , meer boundary, boundary post, Old Icelandic -mæri (in the compound landamæri border), Old Swedish -märe (in the compound landamäre border; compare landimere n., land-mere n.) < an extended form of the Indo-European base of Sanskrit mi- to found, build, construct; compare classical Latin mūrus (earlier moerus ) wall (compare mure n.), and (with different root extension) classical Latin moene (rare; usually in plural moenia walls). In Middle English partly also aphetic < Old English gemǣre , a prefixed form (see y- prefix) from the same Germanic base (see further note below).Recorded in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. Mear as being ‘in gen. dialect use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.’ in sense 1; however, the word is not common in Scots after the 16th cent. (in northern Scots, as in Irish English, largely supplanted by mereing n. in the same sense). In Older Scots the word is usually found in the plural (hence the isolated double plural form merses ). The word is attested in Old English as the first element of many compounds, as mǣrbrōc , mǣrdīc , mǣrford , mǣrhege , mǣrweg , etc., besides those noted at Compounds 1 (compare also merestone n.). It is also a very common place-name element, as Mareweie (1199; now The Mareway, Cambridgeshire), Mereburne (c1200; now Mereburn, Northumberland), Merlegh (1242; now Marley House, Devon), Meresbroke (1312; now Meers Brook, Derbyshire). In Old English the prefixed form gemǣre is more commonly attested. It survives into early Middle English in late copies of material of Old English composition (compare also landimere n.):c1175 ( in A. O. Belfour 12th Cent. Homilies in MS Bodl. 343 (1909) 48 Þeo ælmesse..ȝeondbrædaþ þa ȝemæru.a1300 ( Pledge of Bp. Eadnoð, Crediton, Devon in Britannica: M. Förster zum Sechzigsten Geburtstage (1929) 119 Þis..sint þalondes imeare þare ȝurd bi cridia.

Etymology: Shortened < mermin n. (see forms s.v.).

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Old French mere mother (see mother n.¹). Compare later mère n.⁷

Etymology: Shortened < mere right n. at mere adj.² 3 or its etymon Anglo-Norman meer dreit, mer dreit.

Etymology: < Maori mere. Dict. N.Z. Eng. s.v. also records reduplicated forms meremere and meri meri.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Saxon māri (Middle Low German (rare) mēre ), Old High German māri (Middle High German mære : compare Märchen n.), early Scandinavian (runic) -mariR (in the compound wajemariR ill-famed), Old Icelandic mærr , Gothic -mereis (in the compound waílamereis praiseworthy, glossing ancient Greek εὔϕημος ), ultimately < an extended form of an Indo-European base meaning ‘big, large, considerable’; compare (with a different ablaut grade) ancient Greek -μωρος (in the compound ἐγχεσίμωρος mighty with the spear), Early Irish mór , már (Irish mór , Scottish Gaelic mòr compare claymore n., mormaer n.), Old Welsh máúr (Welsh mawr ), all in sense ‘big’; a mixed origin (with the word being partly referred to the Indo-European base of mere v.¹) has also been suggested, but this is disputed. Compare mo adv.¹, pron.¹, n.¹, and adj.¹, more adj., pron., adv., n.³, and prep., most adj., pron., n., and adv.The base is a very common element in Germanic personal names, compare Old English Æðelmǣr , Wulfmǣr , etc., Old High German Hlodomār , Sigimār , etc., Old Icelandic Bjartmarr , Ingimarr , etc., Gothic Geilamer , Walamer , etc., and is also found in personal names in other languages, compare Gaulish Nertomāros , Old Russian Volodiměr″ (Russian Vladimir , with second element influenced by mir peace: compare mir n.²).

Etymology: Probably partly (especially in early use) < a post-classical Latin form (with characteristic vulgar Latin lengthening of vowels in open syllables) of classical Latin merus undiluted, unmixed, pure < the same Indo-European base as mere v.¹, and partly (in Middle English) a reborrowing of its reflex Anglo-Norman mer, meer, mier, Middle French mer (c1100 in Old French as mier ). Compare Spanish mero (probably 13th cent.), Italian mero (early 14th cent.), Portuguese mero (14th cent.). Germanic origin is unlikely, especially as reflexes of a lengthened grade of the Indo-European base of mere v.¹ are not otherwise attested.In classical Latin senses corresponding to 1a, 1b, and 4 are already found, as is the sense ‘nothing more than, simple’ (compare sense 5). In post-classical Latin chiefly designating unmixed wine or unalloyed metals or coinage, and in various collocations. In Old English mǣre peningas (see quot. eOE at sense 1a) after post-classical Latin meri denarii (a814 in Capitula Caroli Magni). In mere Irish (see sense 1c) after post-classical Latin Hibernicus merus (1409 in a British source), earlier Hibernicus purus (13th cent. in British sources). In mere motion (see sense 2) after post-classical Latin motus merus (from 14th cent. in British sources). In Old French and Anglo-Norman found chiefly in sense ‘pure’ as applied to metals, especially gold; in Anglo-Norman also in legal use: in †mere droit , mere right (see sense 3) after Anglo-Norman mer dreit (compare also classical Latin iūs merum). In Middle French used more broadly in senses ‘whole, pure; clear; complete’. Old English mǣre occurs twice glossing post-classical Latin faecce, fecce (probably the same as faece, ablative of faex dregs of wine):eOE Corpus Gloss. (1890) 55/1 Faecce, maere.eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 192 Fecce, mere. These occurrences have been explained by H. D. Meritt ( Some of Hardest Glosses in Old English (1968) 28-9) as examples of mǣre pure, despite the fact that in the context a word meaning the opposite is expected; Meritt suggests the glosses derive from an original Latin gloss faece, impure (compare the Latin gloss fece, impure in Harley Gloss. 183), either with accidental omission of the Old English negative prefix un- in the intended gloss *unmǣre impure, or, perhaps more likely, with confusion of the abbreviated Latin negative prefix im- (perhaps written separately, as was not uncommon) with the abbreviation for id est (and thus having Old English mǣre correctly translating Latin pure).

Etymology: < the Indo-European base of Sanskrit marīci particle of light, ray of light, ancient Greek μαρμαίρειν to sparkle, classical Latin merus mere adj.², Russian marevo mirage, heat haze, Russian regional mar′ heat haze; probably cognate with (with suffixation) Old Icelandic merla to make gleam, and perhaps also Old English mare, and (with a different ablaut grade) Old Icelandic mura, both in sense ‘silverweed, Potentilla anserina’.More frequent in Old English in prefixed form amerian (compare a- prefix¹ ).

Etymology: < mere n.²In Old English the prefixed forms gemǣran , gemǣrian are also attested (see quots. at sense 1). Recorded in sense 1 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. mear from Cheshire, Shropshire, Somerset, and Westmorland. Middle Eng. Dict. s.v. meren v.(2) cites the following apparent antedating of sense 2:c1330 Short Metrical Chron. (Auch.) 550 in PMLA (1931) 46 124 Oþer þing y made wiþ ginne, Quic brimston..And wild fire y merud þer to. However, E. Zettl ( Anon. Short Eng. Metrical Chron. (1935) 7) reads y meynd mixed (compare ming v.¹ 1a) not y merud, a reading which is borne out by close inspection of the manuscript.

Etymology: < mere adj.²