Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “Mercia” come from?

Mercia derives from Old English Mierce, from Old English mearc meaning boundary or border, from Proto-West Germanic marku, from Proto-Germanic markō, from Proto-Indo-European mereg-.

Ancestry of “Mercia”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old EnglishMierce—
2Old Englishmearcmark, sign, character; boundary, limit
3Proto-West Germanicmarkuboundary, border
4Proto-Germanicmarkōborder, boundary; region, area
5Proto-Indo-Europeanmorǵ-edge, boundary, border; frontier, border
Every word from Proto-Indo-European morǵ- →