Merrie

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Full of gaiety and high spirits, showing a lively, happy mood through laughter and festivity
2. Describing a person or atmosphere that is joyful, bright and light-hearted, often in an archaic sense
3. Cheerful and jolly in disposition, the kind of lively good humour found at celebrations

Etymology: Merrie is simply the older spelling of "merry," and the modern adjective descends from an Old English word whose original sense was closer to "short." That surprising link runs through Proto-Germanic "murguz," meaning "short, slow," to the Proto-Indo-European root for "short." The same ancestor gave English "brief" through Latin "brevis," making the two words doublets, pairs that descend from one source by separate routes. The Old English form "myrġe" meant "pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious," so the cheerful sense was present early. Scots "mery" and Middle Dutch "mergelijc" ("pleasant, agreeable, joyful") show the same development in neighbouring Germanic languages, which suggests the shift from "short" to "pleasant" was already complete in their common ancestry.

Synonyms: merry, jolly, cheerful, joyous, gleeful

Antonyms: sad, gloomy, mournful, melancholy, sorrowful