different between benefaction vs mercy

English

Etymology

From Latin benefacti?nem, from benefacere (“to benefit”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b?n??fak?(?)n/

Noun

benefaction (countable and uncountable, plural benefactions)

1. An act of doing good; a benefit, a blessing.
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 70:

     We all feel that sleep is a benefaction [transl. Wohlthat] to our psychical life, and the obscure awareness of the popular mind is clearly unwilling to be robbed of its prejudice that the dream is one of the ways in which sleep confers its benefactions.

2. An act of charity; almsgiving.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English mercy, merci, from Anglo-Norman merci (compare continental Old French merci, mercit), from Latin merc?s (“wages, fee, price”), from merx (“wares, merchandise”). Displaced native Middle English are, ore (“mercy”) (from Old English ?r (“mercy, grace”), > Scots are (“mercy, grace”)), Middle English mildse (“mercy, clemency”) (from Old English milds, milts (“mercy, kindness”)). See milse.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??si/
• (General American) enPR: mûr?s?, IPA^(key): /?m?si/
• Rhymes: -??(?)si
• Hyphenation: mer?cy

Noun

mercy (countable and uncountable, plural mercies)

1. (uncountable) Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another.

   Antonyms: mercilessness, ruthlessness, cruelty

2. (uncountable) Forgiveness or compassion, especially toward those less fortunate.

3. (uncountable) A tendency toward forgiveness, pity, or compassion.

4. (countable) Instances of forbearance or forgiveness.

5. (countable) A blessing; something to be thankful for.

Derived terms

• bemercy
• merciful
• merciless

Related terms

• mercy me
• at the mercy of
• have mercy

Translations

Verb

mercy (third-person singular simple present mercies, present participle mercying, simple past and past participle mercied)

1. To feel mercy
2. To show mercy; to pardon or treat leniently because of mercy

Interjection

mercy

1. Expressing surprise or alarm.

   Mercy! Look at the state of you!

Further reading

• mercy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mercy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French mercier.

Verb

mercy

1. Alternative form of mercien
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, III:

     Mildeliche Mede þanne · mercyed hem alle / Of þeire gret goodnesse.

Middle French

Noun

mercy m or f (plural mercys)

1. mercy (relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another)