Mere

[meer] /mɪər/

adjective, superlative merest.
1.
being nothing more nor better than:
a mere pittance; He is still a mere child.
2.
Obsolete.

[meer] /mɪər/
noun
1.
Chiefly British Dialect. a lake or pond.
2.
Obsolete. any body of sea water.
[meer] /mɪər/
noun, British Dialect.
1.
a boundary or boundary marker.
[mer; English mair] /mɛr; English mɛər/
noun, plural mères
[mer; English mairz] /mɛr; English mɛərz/ (Show IPA). French.
1.
1 .
1.
a combining form meaning “part,” used in the formation of compound words:
blastomere.
/mɪə/
adjective (superlative) merest
1.
being nothing more than something specified: she is a mere child
/mɪə/
noun
1.
(archaic or dialect) a lake or marsh
2.
(obsolete) the sea or an inlet of it
/mɪə/
noun
1.
(archaic) a boundary or boundary marker
/ˈmɛrɪ/
noun
1.
(NZ) a short flat striking weapon
combining form
1.
indicating a part or division: blastomere
adj.

c.1400, “unmixed, pure,” from Old French mier “pure” (of gold), “entire, total, complete,” and directly from Latin merus “unmixed” (of wine), “pure; bare, naked;” figuratively “true, real, genuine,” probably originally “clear, bright,” from PIE *mer- “to gleam, glimmer, sparkle” (cf. Old English amerian “to purify,” Old Irish emer “not clear,” Sanskrit maricih “ray, beam,” Greek marmarein “to gleam, glimmer”). Original sense of “nothing less than, absolute” (mid-15c., now only in vestiges such as mere folly) existed for centuries alongside opposite sense of “nothing more than” (1580s, e.g. a mere dream).
n.

Old English mere “sea, ocean; lake, pool, pond, cistern,” from Proto-Germanic *mari (cf. Old Norse marr, Old Saxon meri “sea,” Middle Dutch maer, Dutch meer “lake, sea, pool,” Old High German mari, German Meer “sea,” Gothic marei “sea,” mari-saiws “lake”), from PIE *mori- “sea” (cf. Latin mare, Old Church Slavonic morje, Russian more, Lithuanian mares, Old Irish muir, Welsh mor “sea,” Gaulish Are-morici “people living near the sea”).

-mere or -mer
suff.
Part; segment: blastomere, polymer.
-mere or -mer
A suffix meaning “part” or “segment,” as in blastomere, one of the cells that form a blastula.