# mer
## English
### Etymology 1
#### Noun

mer (plural mers)
* (chemistry) A repeat unit: a structural unit which through repetition forms a polymer.
** 2010, Mikell P. Groover, Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing (4th Edition), page 9:A polymer is a compound formed of repeating structural units called mers, whose atoms share electrons to form very large molecules.

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

mer pl (plural only)
* (fantasy) merpeople
** 2013, Missy Fleming, Into the Deep, page 65:There are mermaids and mermen everywhere. They swim above us and linger in nooks and arched doorways. It's impossible not to stare. The mer are as diverse as humans—all ages, size, shape, and color.

### Etymology 3

See mayor.

#### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)

#### Noun

mer (plural mers)
* (obsolete) Alternative form of mayor and mair.

### Anagrams

* EMR, ERM, MRE, R.E.M., REM, Rem, erm, rem

## Aromanian
### Alternative forms

* meru

### Etymology 1

From Late Latin mēlum, from Latin mālum. Compare Daco-Romanian măr.

#### Noun

mer n (plural meari/meare)
* apple

##### Derived terms

* mirush

### Etymology 2

From Vulgar Latin *mēlus, from Latin mālus.

#### Noun

mer m (plural meri)
* apple tree

##### Derived terms

* agrumer
* miric

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin merus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈmer]

### Adjective

mer (feminine mera, masculine plural mers, feminine plural meres)
* mere, simple

#### Derived terms

* merament

### Further reading

* “mer” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Faroese
### Etymology

From Old Norse merr, from Proto-Germanic *marhijō.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /meːɹ/
* Rhymes: -eːɹ

### Noun

mer f (genitive singular merar, plural merar)
* mare, female horse
    Synonym: ryssa

#### Declension
## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle French mer, from Old French mer, from Latin mare, from Proto-Italic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.
The word is almost unparalleled as a Latin neuter that has become feminine without being a backformation from a plural in -a (French -e). This has been ascribed to the influence of terre (“land”). In most other Romance languages it is a masculine, the main exception being Romanian mare f.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mɛʁ/
* Audio (Paris):(file)
* Audio (Canada):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛʁ
* Homophones: maire, maires, mère, mères, mers

### Noun

mer f (plural mers)
* (countable) sea (large body of water)
** 2018, Zaz, J'aime, j'aime:J’aime, j’aime, j’aime la solitude parfois. mais j’aime pas les cris quand ils ne s’arrêtent pas, quand les émotions me plongent en mer enragée, quand le manque de moi me fait divaguer.I love, I love, I sometimes love the loneliness/solitude. But I don't love the crying [cries] when it [they] won't stop, when the emotions plunge me into the enraged sea, when the absence of myself makes me wander.
* (uncountable, used with the definite article) the ocean (the continuous body of salt water covering a majority of the Earth's surface)
    Synonym: océan

#### Derived terms

* anémone de mer
* araignée de mer
* armée de mer
* bouteille à la mer
* bras de mer
* cardon de mer
* cigale de mer
* cochon de mer
* concombre de mer
* eau de mer
* écume de mer
* éléphant de mer
* étoile de mer
* fruit de mer
* haute mer
* hérisson de mer
* léopard de mer
* lis de mer
* loup de mer
* loutre de mer
* mal de mer
* mer Adriatique
* mer Baltique
* mer Blanche
* mer Caspienne
* mer de Barents
* mer de Chine méridionale
* mer de Chine orientale
* mer de Marmara
* mer de Myrto
* mer des Caraïbes
* mer du Japon
* mer du Nord
* mer d’Arabie
* mer d’Aral
* mer d’Azov
* mer d’huile
* mer d’Irlande
* mer d’Iroise
* mer Égée
* mer Ionienne
* mer Jaune
* mer Méditerranée
* mer Morte
* mer Noire
* mer Rouge
* mer Tyrrhénienne
* ne pas être la mer à boire
* niveau de la mer
* oreille de mer
* panicaut de mer
* perche de mer
* prendre la mer
* serpent de mer
* vache de mer

#### Related terms

* marin
* marine

#### Descendants

* Antillean Creole: lanmè
* Haitian Creole: lanmè
* → Volapük: mel

### Further reading

* “mer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Hungarian
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈmɛr]
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛr

### Etymology 1

From Proto-Ugric *märɜ- (“to believe, have faith in dare”).

#### Verb

mer
* (auxiliary with an infinitive) to dare (to have the courage to do something)
    Nem merek bemenni. ― I don’t dare to enter / I daren’t enter.

##### Derived terms

* (merény (archaic) → merényel (archaic) →) merénylet, merénylő
* merész
* (merő →) vakmerő
* aki mer, az nyer

### Etymology 2

From Proto-Ugric *märɜ- (“to dive, plunge”).

#### Verb

mer
* (transitive) to ladle, scoop (to get some liquid or grainy substance out of somewhere by turning in a bowl-shaped object and let it fill)

##### Derived terms

* mereng
* merhető
* merít
* merül
(With verbal prefixes):
* belemer
* felmer
* kimer
* lemer
* megmer
* telemer
* visszamer

### See also

* Category:Hungarian auxiliary verbs

### References

* ↑ Entry #1806 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.
* ↑ Entry #1805 in Uralonet, online Uralic etymological database of the Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics.

### Further reading

* (to dare): mer in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
* (to ladle): mer in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

## Hunsrik
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mɐ/

### Pronoun

mer
* unstressed dative of ich.

#### Inflection
### Further reading

* Online Hunsrik Dictionary

## Kashubian
### Etymology

Borrowed from German Low German mär.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɛr/
* Rhymes: -ɛr
* Syllabification: mer

### Adjective

mer (not comparable, indeclinable, no derived adverb)
* soft; flabby, pliable, flexible

### Adverb

mer (not comparable)
* softly, supplely, pliably

### Further reading

* “mer”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022

## Livonian
### Alternative forms

* mie'r, meŕ (Courland)

### Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *meri. Akin to Finnish meri.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mer/

### Noun

me'r
* sea

#### Derived terms

* Jeimer
* Pūojmer
* Vālda mer
* Vāldamer

## Lolopo
### Etymology

From Proto-Loloish *mo² (Bradley). Cognate with Nuosu ꂿꃅ (mo mu).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [mɯ²¹]

### Noun

mer
* (Yao'an) sky, heaven

## Luxembourgish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mɐ/

### Pronoun

mer
* unstressed form of mir

#### Declension
## Megleno-Romanian
### Alternative forms

* mier

### Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *mēlus, from Latin mālus. Compare Romanian măr.

### Noun

mer m
* apple tree

### References

* Atasanov, Petar (1990) Le mégléno-roumain de nos jours: Une approche linguistique, Hamburg: Buske
* ↑ https://www.dex.ro/mar

## Middle French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French mer, from Latin mare.

### Noun

mer f (plural mers)
* sea (large body of water)

#### Related terms

* marin

#### Descendants

* French: mer

## Middle High German
### Etymology

From Old High German meri, from Proto-West Germanic *mari, from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri, possibly from *mer-.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (before 13th CE) /ˈmer/

### Noun

mer n
* sea

#### Descendants

* Alemannic German: Meer
* Bavarian:
** Mòcheno: meir
* Central Franconian:
** Hunsrik: Meer
** Luxembourgish: Mier
* German: Meer
* Yiddish: מער (mer)

### References

* Benecke, Georg Friedrich, Müller, Wilhelm, Zarncke, Friedrich (1863) “mer”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel
* "mer" in Köbler, Gerhard, Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (3rd edition 2014)

## Mòcheno
### Etymology

From Middle High German mir, from Old High German mir, from Proto-Germanic *miz, dative and instrumental of *ek. Cognate with German mir, English me.

### Pronoun

mer
* dative of i: me, to me

### References

* “mer” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

## Northern Kurdish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mɛɾ/

### Noun

mer f
* spade (a garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging)

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Alternative forms

* mere

### Etymology

From Old Norse meiri.

### Adjective

mer
* comparative degree of mye

### Adverb

mer
* more; used in forming the comparative form of long/foreign adjectives

#### Derived terms

* mer eller mindre

### See also

* meir (Nynorsk)

### References

* “mer” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Old French
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin mare.

### Noun

mer oblique singular, f (oblique plural mers, nominative singular mer, nominative plural mers)
* sea (large body of water)

#### Related terms

* marin

#### Descendants

* French: mer
** Antillean Creole: lanmè
** Haitian Creole: lanmè
** → Volapük: mel
* Norman: mé (Jersey)
* Walloon: mer

## Old Saxon
### Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *maiz.

### Adverb

mēr
* more

## Pennsylvania German
### Etymology 1

Cognate to German wir, mir.

#### Pronoun

mer
* we, first person plural nominative pronoun.

##### Declension

$^1$ unstressed

##### Alternative forms

* mir

### Etymology 2

Cognate to German mir.

#### Pronoun

mer
* dative of ich: me, to me

##### Declension

$^1$ unstressed

##### Alternative forms

* mir

### Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Pronoun

mer
* one, indefinite third person singular nominative pronoun.

### References

* Kate Burridge, Changes with Pennsylvania German, in Ethnosyntax (2002), page 226: mer saage nett […] (we don't say […] )

## Polish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈmɛr/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛr
* Syllabification: mer

### Etymology 1

Borrowed from French maire. Doublet of major.

#### Noun

mer m pers
* mayor (in France and other countries, the chief executive of the municipal government of a city, borough, etc.)

##### Derived terms

* merowski
* merostwo

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from English mer, from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros).

#### Noun

mer m inan
* (chemistry) mer, repeat unit

##### Related terms

* polimer

### Further reading

* mer in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* mer in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Romansch
### Alternative forms

* mar (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Vallader)

### Etymology

From Latin mare, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.

### Noun

mer m (plural mers)
* (Puter) sea

## Swedish
### Etymology

From Old Swedish mēr, from Old Norse meir, from Proto-Germanic *maiz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /meːr/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

mer
* Comparative form of mycket, used in construction of comparative form of certain adjectives; more.

### References

* mer in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
* mer in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

### Anagrams

* rem

## Walloon
### Etymology

From Old French mer, from Latin mare, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /meʀ/

### Noun

mer ? (plural mers)
* sea

## Welsh
### Adjective

mer
* Nasal mutation of ber (“short”).

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.