merlioun

Middle English

Alternative forms

• amerlyon, emerlion, emerlyoun, marlyon, merilioun, merleyn, merliȝon, merlion, merlone, merlyn, merlyon, merlyone, merlyoun

Etymology

From earlier *emerlioun, emerlyoun, borrowed from Old French esmerillon, diminutive of esmeril, from Frankish *smiril, from Proto-Germanic *smirilaz.

The borrowing of monosyllabic Old French /ʎun/ as disyllabic /liˈuːn/ and the tendency for it to reduce to /lin/ rather than /ljun/ is probably to avoid the creation of a cluster /rlj/, though influence from lioun (“lion”) is also possible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(ɛ)ˌmɛrliˈuːn/, /(ɛ)ˈmɛrljun/, /ˈmɛrlin/

Noun

merlioun

1. merlin (the falcon Falco columbarius)

Descendants

• English: merlin, marlin, marlion, marlyon, merline, merlion, merlon
• Scots: maalin (Shetland)
• → Dutch: merlijn

References

• “merliǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.