different between merit vs esteem

English

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English merit, merite (“quality of person’s character or conduct deserving of reward or punishment; such reward or punishment; excellence, worthiness; benefit; right to be rewarded for spiritual service; retribution at doomsday; virtue through which Jesus Christ brings about salvation; virtue possessed by a holy person; power of a pagan deity”), from Anglo-Norman merit, merite, Old French merite (“moral worth, reward; merit”) (modern French mérite), from Latin meritum (“that which one deserves, deserts; benefit, reward, merit; service; kindness; importance, value, worth; blame, demerit, fault; grounds, reason”), neuter of meritus (“deserved, earned, obtained; due, proper, right; deserving, meritorious”), perfect passive participle of mere? (“to deserve, earn, obtain, merit; to earn a living”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to allot, assign”). The English word is probably cognate with Ancient Greek ????? (méros, “component, part; portion, share; destiny, fate, lot”) and cognate with Old Occitan merit.

The verb is derived from Middle French meriter, Old French meriter (“to deserve, merit”) (modern French mériter), from merite: see further above. The word is cognate with Italian meritare (“to deserve, merit; to be worth; to earn”), Latin merit?re (“to earn regularly; to serve as a soldier”), Spanish meritar (“to deserve, merit; to earn”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: m?r??t, IPA^(key): /?m???t/, /?m???t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m???t/, /?m???t/
• Rhymes: -???t
• Hyphenation: me?rit

Noun

merit (countable and uncountable, plural merits)

1. (countable) A claim to commendation or a reward.
2. (countable) A mark or token of approbation or to recognize excellence.

   Antonym: demerit
3. (countable, uncountable) Something deserving or worthy of positive recognition or reward.

   Synonyms: excellence, value, worth

   Antonym: demerit
4. (uncountable, Buddhism, Jainism) The sum of all the good deeds that a person does which determines the quality of the person's next state of existence and contributes to the person's growth towards enlightenment.
5. (uncountable, law) Usually in the plural form the merits: the substantive rightness or wrongness of a legal argument, a lawsuit, etc., as opposed to technical matters such as the admissibility of evidence or points of legal procedure; (by extension) the overall good or bad quality, or rightness or wrongness, of some other thing.
6. (countable, obsolete) The quality or state of deserving retribution, whether reward or punishment.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

merit (third-person singular simple present merits, present participle meriting, simple past and past participle merited)

1. (transitive) To deserve, to earn.
2. (intransitive) To be deserving or worthy.
3. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To reward.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• merit (Buddhism) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• merit (Catholicism) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• merit (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• merit in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• merit in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• merit at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Terim, ermit, miter, mitre, remit, timer

Ladin

Etymology

From Latin meritum.

Pronunciation

Noun

merit m (plural meric)

1. merit

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?merit]

Etymology 1

From French mérite.

Noun

merit n (plural merite)

1. merit

Declension

Etymology 2

Verb

merit

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of merita

English

Alternative forms

• æsteem (archaic)
• esteeme (obsolete)

Etymology

First at end of 16th century; borrowed from Middle French estimer, from Latin aestim? (“to value, rate, weigh, estimate”); see estimate and aim, an older word, partly a doublet of esteem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?ti?m/, /?s?ti?m/
• Rhymes: -i?m

Noun

esteem (usually uncountable, plural esteems)

1. Favourable regard.

Derived terms

• self-esteem

Translations

Verb

esteem (third-person singular simple present esteems, present participle esteeming, simple past and past participle esteemed)

1. To set a high value on; to regard with respect or reverence.

   • Will he esteem thy riches?

   • You talk kindlier: we esteem you for it.

2. To regard something as valuable; to prize.
3. To look upon something in a particular way.

   • Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

   • 1535, Edmund Bonner, De vera obedientia by Stephen Gardiner (Preface)

     Thou shouldest (gentle reader) esteem his censure and authority to be of the more weighty credence.

   • Famous men, whose scientific attainments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. V, The English

     And greatly do I respect the solid character, — a blockhead, thou wilt say; yes, but a well-conditioned blockhead, and the best-conditioned, — who esteems all ‘Customs once solemnly acknowledged’ to be ultimate, divine, and the rule for a man to walk by, nothing doubting, not inquiring farther.

4. (obsolete) To judge; to estimate; to appraise

Synonyms

• (to regard with respect): respect, revere
• (to regard as valuable): cherish

Antonyms

• (to regard with respect): contemn, despise
• (to regard as valuable): scorn, slight

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “esteem”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Mestee, mestee