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Mere vs Silly - What's the difference?

mere | silly | Related terms |

Mere is a related term of silly.


As nouns the difference between mere and silly

is that mere is fear, awe while silly is (colloquial) a silly person; a fool.

As an adjective silly is

(label) pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.

mere

English

(wikipedia mere)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) mere, from (etyl) .

Alternative forms

* (l), (l), (l)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) the sea
  • (dialectal, or, literary) a pool; a small lake or pond; marsh
  • (Drayton)
    (Tennyson)
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber & Faber 2005, p. 194:
  • Lok got to his feet and wandered along by the marshes towards the mere where Fa had disappeared.
    Derived terms
    * mereswine * mermaid * merman * merfolk

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l), (l), (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ix:
  • The Troian Brute'' did first that Citie found, / And ''Hygate'' made the meare thereof by West, / And ''Ouert gate by North: that is the bound / Toward the land; two riuers bound the rest.

    Verb

    (mer)
  • (obsolete) To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
  • (obsolete) To set divisions and bounds.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) famous.
  • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) meer, from (etyl) mier, from (etyl) merus. Perhaps influenced by (etyl) , or conflated with Etymology 3.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (label) Pure, unalloyed .
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.8:
  • So oft as I this history record, / My heart doth melt with meere compassion.
  • * , I.56:
  • Meere .
  • (label) Nothing less than; complete, downright .
  • * , II.3.7:
  • If every man might have what he wouldwe should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion.
  • Just, only; no more than , pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.
  • *
  • Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black)
  • , chapter=2, title= Internal Combustion , passage=More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
    Derived terms
    * merely

    Etymology 5

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a Maori war-club
  • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    silly

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (label) Pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
  • A silly man, in simple weedes forworne, / And soild with dust of the long dried way; / His sandales were with toilesome trauell torne, / And face all tand with scorching sunny ray
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • After long storms with which my silly bark was tossed sore.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
  • The silly buckets on the deck.
  • (label) Simple, unsophisticated, ordinary; rustic, ignorant.
  • * 1633 , (John Donne), "Sapho to Philænis":
  • For, if we justly call each silly man'' / A ''little island , What shall we call thee than?
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • A fourth man, in a silly habit.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • All that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.
  • Foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom; frivolous, trifling.
  • Irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors.
  • Semiconscious, witless.
  • (label) Of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short.
  • Simple, not intelligent, unrefined.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke
  • (label) Happy; fortunate; blessed.
  • (Chaucer)
  • (label) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • The silly virgin strove him to withstand.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • A silly , innocent hare murdered of a dog.

    Derived terms

    * sillily (adverb) * silly season

    Antonyms

    * ("playful"): pious

    Synonyms

    * ("playful"): charming

    Noun

    (sillies)
  • (colloquial) A silly person; a fool.
  • (colloquial) A mistake.
  • Anagrams

    * * * 1000 English basic words