merit

English

/ˈmɛɹɪt/, /ˈmɛɹɪt/

noun
Definitions
  • (countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.
  • (countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.
  • (countable) Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.
  • (uncountable) The sum of all the good deeds that a person does which determines the quality of the person's next state of existence and contributes to the person's growth towards enlightenment.
  • (uncountable) Usually in the plural form the merits: the substantive rightness or wrongness of a legal argument, a lawsuit, etc., as opposed to technical matters such as the admissibility of evidence or points of legal procedure; (by extension) the overall good or bad quality, or rightness or wrongness, of some other thing.
  • (countable) The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English merit derived from merit derived from Old French merite (moral worth, merit, reward) derived from Latin meritum (deserts, merit, value, importance, grounds, blame, fault, kindness, reason, service, benefit, reward, that which one deserves, demerit, worth) derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (remember, allot, assign, be mindful, care for, think, fall into thinking, take careful thought of) derived from Middle French meriter derived from Old French meriter (deserve, merit) root from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (remember, allot, assign, be mindful, care for, think, fall into thinking, take careful thought of).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*(s)mer-

Gloss

remember, allot, assign, be mindful, care for, think, fall into thinking, take careful thought of

Concept
Semantic Field

Cognition

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Kanji

思, 考

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms