# murk
## English
### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /mɝk/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /mɜːk/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

### Etymology 1

From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), murzinas (“dirty, spoiled”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).

#### Alternative forms

* mirk (archaic)
* mark (dialectal)

#### Adjective

murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)
* Dark, murky.
** 1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:He cannot see through the mantle murk.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mirk.

##### Derived terms

* murken

### Etymology 2

From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkwą, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

#### Noun

murk (uncountable)
* Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.
    Synonym: gloom
** c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:[…] in murk and occidental damp
** 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!
** 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Twilight Town:And yet, tiny sparks of hope gleam in this dim existence, like peearls in the murk.

##### Derived terms

* murky

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

From Middle English mirken, probably from Old Norse myrkja, myrkva (“to make dark, darken”), from Proto-Germanic *mirkwijaną, *mirkwajaną (“to make dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

#### Verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)
* To make murky or be murky; to cloud or obscure, or to be clouded or obscured.
** 1918, Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons‎:Dawn had been murking through the smoky windows, growing stronger for half an hour...

##### Translations
### Etymology 4

Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

#### Alternative forms

* merk

#### Verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)
* (African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.
** 1991, Camp Lo, Coolie High:cause we be murkin from the boogie And shittin on the crowds 'cause they jive fakin woody.
** 2010, Dana Dane, Numbers, page 232:That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.
** 2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles, volume 2:He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.
** 2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 31 May 2018:In truth, there are Easter eggs planted in just about every frame of Ready Player One, which never misses an opportunity to insert a recognizable character (hey, is that Jason Voorhees getting merked during the film’s first-person shooter level?) or toss a sop to the faithful.
** 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:Yas (Vivian Oparah): And where is this, uh, summit of doom taking place? Dom (David Jonsson): Il Giardino. There. Used to be "our" place. Yas: No. Absolutely not. Text her, you can't make it. We'll go to Laser Quest, merk some eight-year-olds.

##### Derived terms

* murk out

### Anagrams

* Krum