/mɜɹθ/, [mɝθ], /mɜːθ/
OriginFrom Middle English merth, myrthe, murhthe, from Old English myrġþ (“mirth, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *murgiþu (“briefness, brevity”); equivalent to merry + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch merchte (“pleasure, joy, delight”).
- uncountable, usuallyThe emotion usually following humor and accompanied by laughter.
“But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness
Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.”
“And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that, though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again obliged to join him in his mirth.”
“She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phen”
- uncountable, usuallyThat which causes merriment.
“Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.”
Formsmirths(plural)
Source: Wiktionary