merry == brief?

Language Log 2025-12-25

Summary:

Wiktionary's etymology: From Middle English mery, merie, mirie, myrie, murie, murȝe, from Old English meriġe, miriġe, myriġe, myreġe, myrġe (“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 […]

Link:

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72405&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=merry-brief

From feeds:

Gudgeon and gist » Language Log

Tags:

etymology

Authors:

Mark Liberman

Date tagged:

12/25/2025, 13:50

Date published:

12/25/2025, 09:05