mere
English
Pronunciation
- (body of water; limit; famous; just, only):
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /mɪə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /mɪɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
- (Maori war-club):
- IPA(key): /ˈmɛɹi/, /ˈmɛɹɛ/
- Rhymes: -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ
Etymology 1
From Middle English mere, mer, from Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus (“pure, unmixed, undiluted”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to sparkle, gleam”).
Cognate with Old English āmerian, āmyrian (“to purify, examine, revise”). 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.
Adjective
mere (comparative merer, superlative merest)
- Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. [from 16th c.]
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0016:
- Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].
- 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
- More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.
- 2012 March 1, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106:
- Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
- 2019, Con Man Games; SmashGames, quoting Margaret, Kindergarten 2, SmashGames:
- Ah...my sister wishes to see you. A mere child. She never wants to have lunch with her dear sister, but I guess that's not your problem.
-
- (obsolete) Pure, unalloyed [8th–17th c.].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- So oft as I this history record, / My heart doth melt with meere compassion […].
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- Meere [translating pure] ignorance, and wholy relying on others, was verily more profitable and wiser, than is this verball, and vaine knowledge […].
-
- (obsolete) Nothing less than; complete, downright [15th–18th c.].
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970, partition II, section 3, member 7:
- If every man might have what he would […] we should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion.
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter I, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541, page 35:
- This freedom of expostulation exalted his mother's ire to meer frenzy […] .
-
Derived terms
- merely
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).
Alternative forms
- meer, meere, mear, meare
Noun
mere (plural meres)
- Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- The Troian Brute did first that Citie found, / And Hygate made the meare thereof by West, / And Ouert gate by North: that is the bound / Toward the land; two riuers bound the rest.
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Derived terms
- Hertsmere
- merestead
- merestake
- merestone
- meretree
Verb
mere (third-person singular simple present meres, present participle mering, simple past and past participle mered)
- (transitive, obsolete) To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To set divisions and bounds.
- (cartography) To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.
- 2016 April 1, David EM Andrews, “Merely a question of boundaries.”, in Sheetlines, The Charles Close Society, ISSN 0962-8207:
- What chance is there of revising this example of case law to include an exception to the generally cited rule when an administrative boundary has been mered in the past to coincide with a private property boundary?
-
Related terms
- mereing
Etymology 3
From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *mari (“sea”), from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, Dutch meer, Low German Meer, and German Meer. Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре (móre). Doublet of mar and mare.
Alternative forms
- meer, meere, mear
Noun
mere (plural meres)
- (dialectal or literary) A body of standing water, such as a lake or a pond. More specifically, it can refer to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth. Also included in place names such as Windermere.
- 1622, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 20 p. 16:
- When making for the Brooke, the Falkoner doth espie
- On River, Plash, or Mere, where store of Fowle doth lye:
- 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VIII), new edition, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], OCLC 877622212:
- The meres of Shropshire and Cheshire.
- 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 2392685:
- As a tempest influences the sluggish waters of the deadest mere.
- 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], OCLC 911789798:
- A gloomy-gladed hollow slowly sink
To westward - in the deeps whereof a mere,
Round as the red eye of an Eagle-owl,
Under the half-dead sunset glared
- 1913, Annie S. Swan, The Fairweathers
- She loved.. to watch the lovely shadows in the silent depths of the placid mere.
- 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber & Faber 2005, p. 194:
- Lok got to his feet and wandered along by the marshes towards the mere where Fa had disappeared.
- 1622, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 20 p. 16:
Derived terms
- mereswine
- merfolk
- mermaid
- merman
Etymology 4
See mayor.
Noun
mere (plural meres)
- (obsolete) Alternative form of mayor and mair.
Etymology 5
Borrowed from Maori mere (“more”).
Noun
mere (plural meres)
- A Maori war-club.
- 2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford 2000, p. 41:
- As Owen prepared to dismiss the matter, Rule produced something that really caught the great man's eye – a greenstone mere, the warclub of the Maori.
- 2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford 2000, p. 41:
Anagrams
- Emer., REME, erme, meer, reem
Afrikaans
Noun
mere
- plural of meer
Danish
Etymology
From Old Danish mere, from Old Norse meiri (“more”), from Proto-Germanic *maizô.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /meːrə/, [ˈmeːɐ]
Adjective
mere
- more; to a higher degree
- Han er mere højtidelig end jeg er.
- He is more solemn than I am.
- Han er mere højtidelig end jeg er.
- more; in greater quantity
- I har mere plads end jeg har.
- You have more space than I do.
- I har mere plads end jeg har.
Usage notes
"Mere", in the second sense, is only used with uncountable nouns. For countable nouns, use flere.
Adverb
mere
- more
Estonian
Noun
mere
- genitive singular of meri
Italian
Adjective
mere f
- feminine plural of mero
Anagrams
- erme
Latin
Adverb
merē (not comparable)
- purely, without admixture.
- merely, no more or less than
Verb
merē
- second-person singular present active imperative of mereō
References
- “mere”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- mere in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- Dictionary of Medieval Latin in British Sources
- Karl Ernst Georges, Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch (1913/1918; reprinted Darmstadt 1998), vol. 2, column 888 <http://www.zeno.org/nid/20002495945>.
Middle Dutch
Etymology 1
From Old Dutch mēro, from Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō.
Adjective
mêre
- greater, larger
- Antonym: minre
- older
- Antonym: minre
Inflection
This adjective needs an inflection-table template.
Determiner
mêre
- more
- Antonym: minre
Descendants
- Dutch: meer
Adverb
mêre
- Alternative form of mêe
Etymology 2
From Old Dutch meri, from Proto-West Germanic *mari.
Noun
mēre f or n
- lake (fresh water)
- sea (salt water)
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants
- Dutch: meer
- Afrikaans: meer
- Limburgish: maer
Further reading
- “mere (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- “mere (III)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “mere (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I
- Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “mere (VIII)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page VIII
Middle English
Alternative forms
- mer, mære, mare, meare
Etymology
From Old English mǣre (“famous, great, excellent”), from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz, *mēraz (“excellent, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *mēros (“large, handsome”). Cognate with Middle High German mære (“famous”), Icelandic mærr (“famous”), and German Mär, Märchen (“fairy tale”).
Adjective
mere
- (of God or Saints) glorious, renowned.
- (of persons) illustrious, noble, great.
- beautiful, fair.
- splendid, fine, good.
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French mere medre, from Latin māter, mātrem.
Noun
mere f (plural meres)
- mother (female family member)
Descendants
- French: mère
- Haitian Creole: mè
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *mari (“sea, lake”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈme.re/
Noun
mere m
- lake
- pool
- (poetic or in compounds) sea
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | mere | meras |
| accusative | mere | meras |
| genitive | meres | mera |
| dative | mere | merum |
Derived terms
- meregrot
- merehūs (“Noah's ark”, literally “sea-house”)
- mereswīn
- ȳþmere
Descendants
- Middle English: mere
- English: mere
- Scots: mere
See also
- ēa (“river”)
- gārseċġ (“ocean”)
- sǣ (“sea”)
- strēam (“stream”)
Old French
Alternative forms
- medre
Etymology
From earlier medre, from Latin māter, mātrem.
Noun
mere f (oblique plural meres, nominative singular mere, nominative plural meres)
- mother (female family member)
Descendants
- Bourguignon: meire
- Middle French: mere
- French: mère
- Haitian Creole: mè
- French: mère
- Norman: mère, méthe
- Walloon: mere
Romanian
Noun
mere n pl
- plural of măr
Sardinian
Alternative forms
- meri (Campidanese)
Etymology
From the nominative of Latin maior (“greater, elder”), via intermediate forms like *maire, *meire. For final /-or/ > /-re/, cf. Sardinian sorre, from Latin soror (“sister”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmere/
Noun
mere m (plural meres)
- (Logudorese) owner, master
References
- Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964), “mère”, in Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg
Serbo-Croatian
Verb
mere (Cyrillic spelling мере)
- third-person plural present of meriti