Word Confusion: Marry versus Merry

Posted February 14, 2019 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
8 Dec 2022

When you marry, it’s a merry time, celebrating with food, drink, dancing, and cake. It’s even merrier when drink includes champagne . . .

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Marry	Merry
Pizza Margherita, at Restaurant Gusto by Lombroso is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Basil will marry well with tomato in a pizza.	Party People courtesy of by Gabia Party is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Friends making merry.
Part of Grammar:
Exclamation ¹; Verb ², intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: marries Past tense or past participle: married Present participle: marrying	Adjective
Exclamation: [Archaic] Expressing surprise, indignation, or emphatic assertion ¹ Verb, intransitive: Join in marriage ² Enter into marriage [marry into] Become a member of (a family) by marriage Cause to meet or fit together Combine Meet or blend with something Verb, transitive: Join in marriage ² Take (someone) as one’s wife or husband in marriage [Of a parent or guardian] Give (a son or daughter) in marriage, especially for reasons of expediency Cause to meet or fit together Combine [Nautical] Splice ropes end to end without increasing their girth [Nautical] To match up the strands of unlaid ropes before splicing	Cheerful and lively [Of an occasion or season] Characterized by festivity and rejoicing [Informal] Slightly and good-humoredly drunk [Archaic] Causing happiness Pleasant Delightful
Examples:
Exclamation: Ay, marry doth it. This is a fellow of some sense this: come, good uncle. Marry, doth my cousin Silence know, is he advised of the matter? Marry he doth consider, that by the King’s Majesty, with all your advices and the consent of the nobles of the realm, he was called to the place. Marry, he doth not use to wear a night-cap, for his horns will not let him. Verb, intransitive: They had no plans to marry. Both men married into my mother’s family. Did you think she’d marry so soon after her divorce? Most Chardonnays don’t marry well with salmon. This wine and the strong cheese just don’t marry. Marry in haste, repent at leisure. Verb, transitive: I was married in church. The priest who married us turned out to be a woman. He was engaged to get married to Ginger. She married money. Eric asked me to marry him. Her parents married her to a wealthy landowner. The show marries poetry with art. The two halves are trimmed and married up. This is called marrying the ropes and is a simple and effective way to ensure that you don’t let any of the rope slip back through whilst tying it off. Unlay the ends to be joined. Go back three or more complete turns. Now marry the loosened strands. Marry the ropes and temporarily seize the strands of one to the other.	Join us! The more the merrier. That bitch just went on her merry way. Eat, drink, and be merry, my friends. The narrow streets were dense with merry throngs of students. I remember Louise’s merry grin. He wished me a Merry Christmas. After the third bottle of beer he began to feel quite merry.
Derivatives:
Adjective: nonmarrying, unmarrying Noun: marrier	Adjective: merrier, merriest, overmerry, unmerry Adverb: merrily, overmerrily, unmerrily Noun: merry-go-round, merriness, merrymaker, merrymaking, overmerriness
History of the Word:
Late Middle English variant of Mary the Mother of God. Middle English from the Old French marier, which is from the Latin maritare, which is from maritus, literally meaning married. As a noun, it means husband.	Old English myrige, meaning pleasing, delightful, is of Germanic origin and related to mirth.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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