Murry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A deep purplish-red shade like ripe mulberries ; a Scots dialect word meaning cheerful or lively in spirit
2. A dark mulberry red colour, often seen in heraldry ; a regional Scottish term describing someone happy and full of good humour
3. The colour of a deep, dusky red resembling mulberries ; an old Scots adjective for being joyful, merry and lighthearted

Etymology: "Murry" is an Australian English word meaning "great" or "very," as in a "murry good time." It was borrowed from Dharug, the Aboriginal language of the Sydney region, where the word "mari" or "maray" carried the sense of "great" or "very." English speakers recorded it in 1818, which makes it one of the earlier Australian English words to be taken from an Aboriginal language and used in everyday speech. The word's journey from Dharug into colloquial English shows how early colonial settlers absorbed local vocabulary into their own speech. Its use as an intensifier, placed before a noun or adjective to add emphasis, reflects the way the original Dharug term was applied to express largeness or strength.