Where does “merit” come from?

merit (Anglo-Norman) comes from Old French merite, from Latin meritum, from Latin meritus, from Latin mereō, from Proto-Indo-European (s)mer- — to fall into thinking, remember, care for; to...

Ancestry of “merit”, step by step

Step	Language	Word	Meaning
1	Old French	merite	merit
2	Latin	meritum	merit, service, deserts; value, reward, benefit,...
3	Latin	meritus	earned, deserved, obtained, due, proper, right,...
4	Latin	mereō	to deserve, merit
5	Proto-Indo-European	(s)mer-	to fall into thinking, remember, care for; to...

Words derived from “merit”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European (s)mer- →Every word from Latin mereō →Every word from Latin meritus →