Meros

#etymology Published: 2021-11-24

Yesterday, I wrote about anthimeria, which itself is composed of the prefix “ant(h)i-“ meaning “opposite” and the Ancient Greek “μέρος” (“méros”) meaning “part”. In English, μέρος often appears in the form of “-mer-“.

-mer

Some chemical terms have the suffix “-mer”, e.g., polymer, isomer.

-merous

In botany, merosity¹ refers to the number of component parts in a whorl. With a proper numeric prefix X, we can form the adjective “${X}merous” (e.g., dimerous refers to a whorl of 2 parts).

Although the word “numerous” looks quite similar in form, it comes from a different origin.

mer-

The word “merit” comes from the Latin “mereō”, meaning “I receive a share”, which ultimately comes from μέρος.

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