mer-

mer- pref.

Variant of mero-.

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To rub away, harm.

Derivatives include nightmare, morsel, morbid, mortal, mortgage, and ambrosia.

I.

1. nightmare, from Old English mare, mære, goblin, incubus, from Germanic *marōn-, goblin.

2. marasmus; amaranth, from Greek marainein, to waste away, wither.

3. Probably suffixed zero-grade form *mr̥-to-, “ground down.” mortar, from Latin mortārium, mortar.

4. Possibly extended root *merd-. mordacious, mordant, mordent, morsel; premorse, remorse, from Latin mordēre, to bite.

5. Possibly suffixed form *mor-bho-. morbid, from Latin morbus, disease (but this is more likely of unknown origin).

II. Possibly the same root is *mer-, “to die,” with derivatives referring to death and to human beings as subject to death.

1. Zero-grade form *mr̥-.

a. Suffixed form *mr̥-tro-. murder, from Old English morthor, murder, from Germanic suffixed form *mur-thra-;

b. suffixed form *mr̥-ti-. mort¹, mortal; amortize, mortify, postmortem, from Latin mors (stem mort-), death;

c. suffixed form *mr̥-yo-. moribund, mortgage, mortmain, mortuary, murrain, from Latin morī, to die, with irregular past participle mortuus (< *mr̥-two-), replacing older *mr̥-to- (for which see d);

d. prefixed and suffixed form *n̥-mr̥-to-, “undying, immortal.” (*n̥-, negative prefix; see ne).

(i) immortal, from Latin immortālis;

(ii) ambrosia, from Greek ambrotos, immortal, divine (a- + -mbrotos, brotos, mortal);

(iii) amrita, from Sanskrit amṛtam, immortality (a- + mṛta-, dead).

2. Suffixed o-grade form *mor-t-yo-. manticore, from Greek mantikhōras (corrupted from marti(o)khōras), manticore, probably from Iranian compound *martiya-khvāra-, “man-eater” (*khvāra-, eating; see swel-), from Old Persian martiya-, a mortal man.

 

[Pokorny 4. mer-, 5. mer- 735.]

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