Where does “merit” come from?
Merit comes from Middle English merite, from Old French merite, from Latin meritum, the past participle of mereri meaning to earn or deserve, from Proto-Indo-European (s)mer-.
merit (English): A claim to commendation or a reward; A mark or...
Definitions
- A claim to commendation or a reward; A mark or...
Ancestry of “merit”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | merit | — |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | merit | — |
| 3 | Old French | merite | merit |
| 4 | Latin | meritum | merit, service, deserts; value, reward, benefit,... |
| 5 | Latin | meritus | earned, deserved, obtained, due, proper, right,... |
| 6 | Latin | mereō | to deserve, merit |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)mer- | to fall into thinking, remember, care for; to... |