merry: [OE] Merry goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *murgjaz, which appears to have been derived from a base meaning ‘short’. By the time it reached Old English, as myrige, it meant ‘pleasant’ – a semantic leap perhaps inspired by the notion of ‘shortening’ time by passing it pleasantly. The modern meaning ‘jolly’ did not emerge until the 14th century. A derivative of *murgjaz was the noun *murgithō, source of English mirth [OE]; Dutch has the related merchte ‘mirth’. => mirth[merry etymology, merry origin, 英语词源]