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The corpus record — Latin

merus

merus

pure

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 109 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. merus — de Vaan

merus 'pure' [adj. o/a] (P1.+) Derivatives: meraculus 'undiluted' (PL+); merobibus [adj.] 'that drinks unmixed wine' (PL); submerus 'nearly undiluted' (PL·). Pit *mero-. PIE *merH-o- 'remaining, pure\ IE cognates: Hit marri [adv.] 'just so, gratuitously'. The word has been compared with Gr. μαρμαίρω 'to flash, sparkle', but even if 'pure' can sometimes be paraphrased as 'clear' (thus EM), there is no compelling … — [de Vaan, s.v. merus, p. 390]

2. mĕrus — Lewis & Short

mĕrus, a, um, adj.root mar-, to gleam; cf.: ma/rmaros, marmor, mare; hence, bright, pure,

I pure, unmixed, unadulterated, esp. of wine not mixed with water: merum antiqui dicebant solum: at nunc merum purum appellamus, Paul. ex Fest. p. 124 Müll.
I Lit.: vinum merum, Varr. ap. Non. 4, 295: vina, Ov. M. 15, 331.—Of other things: argentum merum, Plaut. As. 1, 3, 3: undae, Ov. M. 15, 323: lac, id. F. 4, 369: gustus, Col. 3, 21: claror, clear, unclouded, Plaut. Most. 3, 1, 111: mero meridie, Petr. 37.—Hence,
2 Subst.: mĕrum, i, n., pure, unmixed wine, wine not mixed with water (poet. and in post-Aug. prose): ingurgitare se in merum, Plaut. Curc. 1, 2, 35; Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 11; id. C. 1, 36, 13: objecturus Antonio Cicero merum et vomitum, Quint. 8, 4, 16: meri veteris torrens, Juv. 6, 319; 3, 283; Val. Fl. 5, 595: ad merum pronior, Plin. 14, 22, 28, § 145; 23, 1, 23, § 43.—
B Transf.
1 Bare, naked, uncovered (poet.): pes, Juv. 6, 158: stabat calce merā, Prud. stef. 6, 91.—
2 In gen., bare, nothing but, only, mere (class.): meri bellatores gignuntur, Plaut. Mil. 4, 2, 85: in medio (foro) ostentatores meri (ambulant), id. Curc. 4, 1, 15: Diogenem postea pallium solum habuisse, et habere Ulixem meram tunicam, nothing but, only, Varr. ap. Non. 344, 10: nihil, nisi spem meram, Ter. Phorm. 1, 2, 95: mera monstra nuntiare, Cic. Att. 4, 7, 1: proscriptiones, meri Sullae, id. ib. 9, 11, 3: scelera loquuntur, id. ib. 9, 13, 1: bellum, id. ib. 9, 13, 8: nugae, id. ib. 6, 3, 5: adfectus, Quint. 11, 1, 52.—
II Trop., pure, true, real, genuine, unadulterated: meri principes, Cic. de Or. 2, 22, 94: velut ex diutinā siti nimis avide meram haurientes libertatem, immoderate, excessive, Liv. 39, 26; cf. Cic. Rep. 1, 43, 66; but mera libertas, in Horace, signifies true, genuine freedom, Hor. Ep. 1, 18, 8: Achaia, illa vera et mera Graecia, Plin. Ep. 8, 24, 2: Cecropis, a real Athenian, Juv. 6, 187.—Hence, adv.: mĕrē, purely, without mixture, wholly, entirely (ante-class. and post-Aug.): si semel amoris poculum accepit mere, Plaut. Truc. 1, 1, 22.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. merus (scan p. 390; entry #1039). Root candidates: *mero-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. merus (scan p. 424; entry #6799).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.