Etymograph

English

mere

Mere comes from Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier ‘pure, simple, complete’, and ultimately from Latin merus.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmerus‘pure, unmixed, undiluted’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400mier‘pure, simple, complete’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400meer
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mere
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590mere

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmerus‘pure, unmixed, undiluted’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400mier‘pure, simple, complete’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400meer
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mere
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590mere

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto VIII: “So oft as I this history record, / My…”

The story

The Middle English word was perhaps influenced by or conflated with sound-alike Middle English mere (‘glorious, noble, splendid, fine, pure’), from Old English mǣre (‘famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling’), from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *mer- ‘to sparkle, gleam’

march, remember, murder, marine, nightmare, mortality, marsh, mortal, mortar, maritime, mara, moor, morbid, mare, mort, morn, muller, ambrosia, marinate, moribund, marinara, maar, cormorant, 62 more

Another origin of mere

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mey-‘to fence’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mairiją‘boundary’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mairīreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150mǣre‘boundary’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mere
  6. Englishtodaymere

Another origin of mere

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mer-‘sea, lake, wetland’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*móri‘sea’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mari‘sea, ocean’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mari‘sea’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150mere‘lake’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mere
  7. Englishtodaymere

Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре (móre).

Another origin of mere

  1. Māorimodernmere‘more’
  2. Englishtodaymere

Today it means

adj Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin merus / mere

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