Etymograph

English

mercy

Mercy comes from Latin mercēs ‘wages, fee, price’, from merx ‘wares, merchandise’, and ultimately from Proto-Italic *merks.

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*merks1reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmerx2‘wares, merchandise’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmercēs2‘wages, fee, price’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400merci2
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mercy2
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1650mercy2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin merx, which cites Matasović
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English mercy
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “He despaired of God's mercy in the same fact,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*merksWiktionary, Latin merx, which cites Matasovićreconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmerxWiktionary, English mercy‘wares, merchandise’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmercēsWiktionary, English mercy‘wages, fee, price’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400merciWiktionary, English mercy
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mercyWiktionary, English mercy
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1650mercyWiktionary, English mercy. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “He despaired of God's mercy in the same fact,…”

Linked words

through Latin merx ‘wares, merchandise’

market, commercial, commerce, merchant, merchandise, mercantile, mercer, mercantilism, 17 more

through Latin mercēs ‘wages, fee, price’

mercenary, merci

Today it means

noun Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mercy”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin merx. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Italic *merks / mercy

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