murk

• (General American) IPA^(key): /mɝk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɜːk/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k

From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *morkъ (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), Ancient Greek ἀμορβός (amorbós, “dark”).

• (archaic) mirk, (dialectal) mark

murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)

1. Dark, murky.
   • 1835, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:

     He cannot see through the mantle murk.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mirk.

• murken

From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkwą, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

murk (uncountable)

1. Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.

   Synonym: gloom

   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     […] in murk and occidental damp

   • 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

     O great star disappear’d—O the black murk that hides the star!

• murky

From Middle English mirken, probably from Old Norse myrkja, myrkva (“to make dark, darken”), from Proto-Germanic *mirkwijaną, *mirkwajaną (“to make dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

1. To make murky or be murky; to cloud or obscure, or to be clouded or obscured.
   • 1918, Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons‎:

     Dawn had been murking through the smoky windows, growing stronger for half an hour...

Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

• merk

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

1. (African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.
   • 1991, Camp Lo, Coolie High:

     cause we be murkin from the boogie
     And shittin on the crowds
     'cause they jive fakin woody.

   • 2010, Dana Dane, Numbers, page 232:

     That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.

   • 2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles, volume 2:

     He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.

   • 2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 31 May 2018:

     In truth, there are Easter eggs planted in just about every frame of Ready Player One, which never misses an opportunity to insert a recognizable character (hey, is that Jason Voorhees getting merked during the film’s first-person shooter level?) or toss a sop to the faithful.

   • 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:

     Yas (Vivian Oparah): And where is this, uh, summit of doom taking place?
     Dom (David Jonsson): Il Giardino. There. Used to be "our" place.
     Yas: No. Absolutely not. Text her, you can't make it. We'll go to Laser Quest, merk some eight-year-olds.

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