Chapter Merry Men to Mexitli of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Merry Men to Mexitli

Merry Men (My). A chief calls his followers his merry men. (See above.)

Merry Men of Mey An expanse of broken water which boils like a caldron in the southern side of the Stroma channel.

Merry Monarch Charles II. (1630, 1660-1685).

Merry-thought The furcula or wishing-bone in the breast of a fowl; sometimes broken by two persons, and the one who holds the larger portion has his wish, as it is said.

Merry as a Cricket or as a Lark, or as a Grig. The French say, “Fou (or Folle) comme le branlegai, ” and more commonly “Gai comme un pinson ” (a chaffinch). “Branlegai” is a dance, but the word is not in use now.

Merse Berwickshire was so called because it was the merc or frontier of England and Scotland.

Mersenne (2 syl.). The English Mersenne. John Collins, mathematician and physicist, so called from Marin Mersenne, the French philosopher (1624-1683).

Merton (Tommy). One of the chief characters in the tale of Sandford and Merton, by Thomas Day.

Merton College Founded by Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester, and Lord High Chancellor in 1264.

Meru A fabulous mountain in the centre of the world, 80,000 leagues high, the abode of Vishnu, and a perfect paradise. It may be termed the Indian Olympos.

Merveilleuse (3 syl., French). The sword of Doolin of Mayence. It was so sharp that when placed edge downwards it would cut through a slab of wood without the use of force. (See Swords .)
    Also a term applied to the 18th century French ladies' dress.

Mesmerism So called from Friedrich Anton Mesmer, of Mersburg, in Suabia, who introduced the science into Paris in 1778. (1734-1815.)

Mesopotamia The true “Mesopotamia” ring (London Review)- i.e. something high-sounding and pleasing, but wholly past comprehension. The allusion is to the story of an old woman who told her pastor that she “found great support in that comfortable word Mesopotamia. ”

Mess = 4. Nares says because “at great dinners ... the company was usually arranged into fours.” That four made a mess is without doubt. Lyly expressly says, “Foure makes a messe, and we have a messe of masters” (Mother Bombie, ii. 1). Shakespeare calls the four sons of Henry his “mess of sons” (2 Henry VI., act i. 4); and “Latine,” English, French, and Spanish are called a “messe of tongues” (Vocabulary, 1617). Again, Shakespeare says (Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3), “You three fools lacked me ... to make up the mess.” Though four made a mess, yet it does not follow that the “officer's mess” is so called, as Nares says, because “the company was arranged into fours,” for the Anglo-Saxon mese, like the Latin mensa = table, mes Gothic = dish, whence Benjamin's mess, a mess of pottage, etc.
    Mess, meaning confusion or litter, is the German mischen, to mix; our word mash.

Messalina Wife of the Emperor Claudius of Rome. Her name has become a byword for lasciviousness and incontinency. Catherine II. of Russia is called The Modern Messalina (1729-1796). (See Marozia .)

Messalina of Germany (The). Barbary of Cilley, second wife of Kaiser Sigismund (15th century).

Metalogicus by John of Salisbury, the object of which is to expose the absurdity and injurious effects of “wrangling,” or dialectics and metaphysics. He says, “Prattling and quibbling the masters call disputing or wrangling, but I am no wiser for such logic.”