Etymology

mirth

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Today it means: The emotion usually following humor and accompanied by laughter. Full definition →

Middle English merth ← Old English myrgþ ← Proto-West Germanic *murgiþu
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*murgiþu“briefness, brevity”
  2. Old English · inherited frommyrgþ“mirth, joy”
  3. Middle English · inherited frommerth
  4. English todaymirth

From Middle English merth, myrthe, murhthe, from Old English myrgþ (“mirth, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *murgiþu (“briefness, brevity”); equivalent to merry + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch merchte (“pleasure, joy, delight”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.