mere

Meanings

Noun

• A body of standing water, such as a lake or a pond. More specifically, it can refer to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth. Also included in place names such as Windermere.
• Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
• A Maori war-club.

Verb

• To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
• To set divisions and bounds.
• To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.

Adjective

• Famous.
• Pure, unalloyed .
• Nothing less than; complete, downright .
• Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

Origin

• From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *mari ("sea"), from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, Dutch meer, Low German Meer, and German Meer. Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре. mar, and mare.
• From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre, from Proto-Germanic *mairiją, from Proto-Indo-European *mey-. Cognate with Dutch meer ("a limit, boundary"), Icelandic mærr ("borderland"), Swedish landamäre ("border, borderline, boundary").
• From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz, *mēraz, from Proto-Indo-European *mēros. Cognate with Middle High German mære, Icelandic mærr, and German Mär, Märchen ("fairy tale").
• From Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus. Perhaps influenced by Old English mǣre ("famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling"), or conflated with Etymology 3.
• Borrowed from Maori mere ("more").