The Story of English in 100 Words Read Online Free PDF

spellings as
miri
and
mirye
.
    In Anglo-Saxon manuscripts we also see the word spelled as
muri
and
meri
. That suggests there were different dialect pronunciations in the country. And when we look at where the people who wrote the manuscripts were located, we can indeed begin to see a dialect pattern. The scribes who used the
i
spelling were based in the south, around Winchester. Those who used
u
came from further west. And those who used
e
came from the south-east, in Kent.
    By the Middle Ages, there was a huge tangle of spellings. Over fifty ways of spelling
merry
have beenrecorded. Versions with
e
,
u
and
i
turn up all over the place. And then, gradually, the spelling with
e
won, reflecting the pronunciation which had become the norm in London and the south-east.
    What could be
merry
, in Old English? The word originally meant ‘something that causes pleasure’, so it was used for all kinds of things and happenings. Songs, birds, harps, organs and voices could all be merry. So could the weather, the countryside, days, winds and smells. Books and stories were merry. So were clothes and jewellery. And the sun and stars. And countries.
Merry England
dates from around 1400.
    Only in the 14th century did the word come to be applied to people, and then it developed a remarkable range of uses. Merry England indeed! We see it used for any kind of animated enjoyment – and also when the animation is drink-fuelled. Anyone happily tipsy is said to be merry. That usage goes back to the Middle Ages, when people were also said to be
merry-drunk
. In the 16th century, strong ale was called
merry-go-down
.
    One sign of a word becoming really established is when it turns up in idioms, book titles, nicknames and compound words, and from the 14th century we see it in a whole host of phrases. Idioms?
Make merry
and
the more the merrier
. Titles?
The Merry Wives of Windsor
and
The Merry Widow
. Nicknames?
The Merry Monarch
(Charles II) and the
Merry Men
(of Robin Hood). Compounds? The supremely descriptiveand
merrythought
. A merry-totter was a medieval name for a children’s swing or see-saw. It’s still heard today in some regional dialects, especially in Yorkshire. And in the 16th century, a merrythought was a word for a fowl’s wishbone, pulled and broken while each party made a wish.
    The process continued in later centuries. In the 18th century we find the arrival of the fairground carousel – a
merry-go-round
. In the 19th century we find people being
merry and bright
and
going on their merry way
.
Merry-go-up
was a slang name for snuff. The Royal Navy came to be called the
Merry Andrew
. In the 20th century, we find
merry maids
used as the name of a wide range of enterprises, from milk chocolate caramels to domestic cleaning services. And in the USA and the Caribbean,
merry
became popular as a verb. One could
merry oneself
(‘amuse oneself’). And people could
merry up
, such as after a drink, or
merry up
a room if it looked dull.
    The ultimate accolade was when
merry
came to be used, in the 16th century, as a greeting for one of the chief festivities of the year.
Merry Christmas!
And, for a while,
Merry New Year
too, until
Happy
took over. Not a bad career for what was originally a Kentish dialect word.

Riddle
    playing with language (10th century)
    People have probably played with words as long as language has existed. They love to take a word and mess about with it, such as by saying it backwards, making an outrageous pun on it or stringing it together with other words so that it can’t be said (tongue-twisters). The playful temperament has produced innumerable word games and competitions, such as crossword puzzles and Scrabble. And one of the earliest signs of this temperament in English appears in the form of riddles.
    It took a while for the word
riddle
to develop this meaning. When it first appears in Old English, in early translations from Latin, it was in the form
rædels
(pronounced ‘reah-dels’), a combination of