The history of the word “mercy”

The history of the word “mercy” July 13, 2016

The word “mercy” is gaining more and more currency in Christianity these days.  It has long been a favorite word of LMCS president Matthew Harrison, and, more recently, of Pope Francis.  Kory Stamper, a lexicographer with Merriam-Webster dictionary, gives its history after the jump.

Originally, “mercy” meant clemency for an offender.  The word came from the same root a “merchandise,” referring to a “payment.”  So a plea for mercy meant that “the object of mercy was not deserving of compassion, that the party showing mercy was literally bearing the cost of the crime or debt on themselves.”  That is to say, the word “mercy” was all about the gospel.

Later, the term began to be used for compassion to any one in need.  But the gospel, enshrined in the very etymology of the word, applies there too.

Where and when does the word mercy come from?

Mercy has an interesting history. It was brought into English by way of medieval French, where it referred to clemency against one who has offended, and our earliest English use is in a 13th-century homily: “Lord, have mercy on us.” The French adapted the word from the Latin merx, which means “merchandise” and was used in the very early Middle Ages to refer to a price paid for something, usually labor. So when mercy appeared in English, it still had overtones of payment for something. You could make a theological meal of that, of course, and plenty of early use does. Most of the earliest uses of mercy are as a petition for God’s mercy on a sinner’s soul.

I see that emphasis on pardon for a sinner in the Merriam-Webster definition of mercy; your number-one definition of the word is “compassion specifically toward an offender.” But the entry’s third definition is “compassion toward those in distress.” Do you have any sense of how these distinct definitions developed?

The “compassion for an offender” meaning is one of the earliest meanings, and very specific. Mercy in those uses was tied to the idea of wiping out a debt, invalidating a crime, restoring to health or wholeness or society. It assumed that the object of mercy was not deserving of compassion, that the party showing mercy was literally bearing the cost of the crime or debt on themselves.

Of course, the biggest uses of mercy in that sense were petitions to God for mercy, for a removal of justified judgment and punishment. The “compassion towards the unfortunate” sense was a natural extension of that. As the church is meant to be Christ incarnate to a broken world, so we bring Christ’s compassion to those who are suffering. This English use traces back almost directly to Mt 25:35-37, in which Jesus explains how the Father will separate out the sheep from the goats. A 14th-century laypersons’ catechism explains that it behooves the Christian to do these “seuen deds of merci” (seven deeds of mercy) laid out by Jesus in this passage, which is what gave rise to the seven corporal works of mercy in the medieval church.

With this, the orientation of the word mercy shifted away from compassion for the offender to compassion toward all in need.

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