merryとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English mery, merie, mirie, myrie, murie, murȝe, from 古期英語 meriġe, miriġe, myriġe, myreġe, myrġe (“pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious”), 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 myrjel (“small object, figurine”), Latin brevis (“short, small, narrow, shallow”), Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”). Doublet of brief.

別の表記

• merie, merrie, mery (廃れた用法)

形容詞

merry (comparative merrier, superlative merriest)

1. Jolly and full of high spirits; happy.

   We had a very merry Christmas.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

     I am neuer merry when I heare ſweet muſique.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 281:

     I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush.

2. Festive and full of fun and laughter.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], OCLC 22773434:

     If I have the chance, I will make our worshipful Sheriff pay right well for that which he hath done to me. Maybe I may bring him some time into Sherwood Forest and have him to a right merry feast with us.

   Everyone was merry at the party.

3. Brisk

   The play moved along at a merry pace.

   The car moved at a merry clip.

4. Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight.

   a merry jest

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 1, page 171:

     There eke my feeble barke a while may ſtay, / Till mery wynd and weather call her thence away.

5. (euphemistic) drunk; tipsy

   Some of us got a little merry at the office Christmas party.

同意語

• (jolly): cheerful, content, ecstatic, exultant, gay, happy, jovial, joyful, pleased; see also Thesaurus:happy
• (festive): convivial, gay, jovial
• (brisk): energetic, lively, spirited; see also Thesaurus:active
• (causing laughter): delightful, gladful
• (drunk): lushy, muzzy, squiffy; see also Thesaurus:drunk

反意語

• (jolly): miserable, unhappy

派生語

関連する語

• mirth

語源 2

French merise

名詞

merry (複数形 merries)

1. An English wild cherry.

アナグラム

• Rymer