merry

See also: Merry and Merrý

English

From Middle English mery, merie, mirie, myrie, murie, murȝe, from Old English 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”), Old High German murg, murgi ("short, brief"; > German murk (“short, lazy”)), Norwegian dialectal myrjel (“small object, figurine”), Latin brevis (“short, small, narrow, shallow”), Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”). Doublet of brief.

merry (comparative merrier, superlative merriest)

Jolly and full of high spirits.
We had a very merry Christmas.
- c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:
  I am neuer merry when I heare ſweet muſique.
Festive and full of fun and laughter.
- 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V
  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.
Brisk
The play moved along at a merry pace.
Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight.
a merry jest
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book I, canto XII, stanza 1, page 171:
  There eke my feeble barke a while may ſtay, / Till mery wynd and weather call her thence away.
(euphemistic) drunk; tipsy
Some of us got a little merry at the office Christmas party.

jolly and full of high-spirits

festive and full of fun and laughter

brisk

merry (plural merries)

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