mercy
verbEtymology From Middle English mercy, merci, from Anglo-Norman merci (compare continental Old French merci, mercit), from Latin mercēs (“wages, fee, price”), from merx (“wares, merchandise”). Displaced native Old English mildheortnes (literally "mildheartedness"). Cognate with French merci, whence the doublet merci.
1
To feel mercy
- I despised her; but I mercied her, too, and gave her sweet berries to eat, and led her to my lodge, and said to my best wife, ' Get up from my best skin, for the white squaw is a guest, and is weary.'1866, Sarah Hammond Palfrey, Herman: Or, Young Knighthood, page 189:
- At another time, forgetting "his verse," he attempted part of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, by repeating, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be mercied!"1867, Henry Mills Alden, Lee Foster Hartman, Frederick Lewis Allen, Harper's Magazine - Volume 34, page 402:
4 more examples
- There is not a less mercied pair of rogues within the walls of Ireland these days than you both.1888, Parnellism and Crime: Further evidence as to murders and outrages:
- In vogue, an age, we are interrupted typics of Universal errors; established adults of vaudeville Street shows — but not quite complete or made whole Neither pitied, nor mercied, nor eldered as one Full disguised and costumed.1965, Equinox: An Anthology of New Writing from the Philippines:
- No thank you, I resent being mercied by a thing that is just a^([sic]) imaginary product of suppressive humans who wanna have power over people!1996 June 4, Adrian Philips, “I think homosexuality destroys the society”, in alt.homosexual (Usenet):
- Thus Jesus represents human nature in a third way — not as mercied outsiders like the Magi, nor as a judged insider like Herod. Jesus is New Israel in person, the fulfilled promise wrapped in the life of a single Jewish child.2004, Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 73:
2
To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy
- In the middle of the room is a young Infanta intended for Marguerite Theresa, born in 1651, daughter of Philip the fourth, whose portrait Velasquez took in 1658, to send to Leopold, who had just been elected Emperor of Germanyd and who mercied her in 1666.1833, Etienne Achille Réveil, Museum of Painting and Sculpture:
- Remember that kid that kept yelling that his father was mercied?” “Mercied?” - “The kid that kept saying his father was killed?1963, John Brunner, Listen! The Stars!, page 46:
3 more examples
- 'Hah! Good Samaritan indeed! Then why hasn't she mercied me all these years I've been begging for her pepper-soup on credit?1999, Chuma Nwokolo, African Tales at Jailpoint, page 86:
- Getting mercied sucks. And truth be told, mercying another team sucks.2005, Randy Howe, Softball for Weekend Warriors, →ISBN:
- This was Suttree's trolley token, the one that mercied him, the one that froze him to death.2010, Peter Josyph, Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy, →ISBN, page 23: