mercy

来自古法语merci,礼物，奖品，友善，来自拉丁语merx,商品，物品，词源同market,merchant.原指神对帮助弱者的人给予的礼物或奖励，本质上即通过交换或贸易来鼓励人们行善，后用于指上帝原谅其子民的冒犯和无知，并由此引申词义仁慈，怜悯。

mercy

mercy: [12] Latin mercēs meant ‘payment, reward’. In the Christian era the notion of a ‘reward’ was taken up and reapplied metaphorically to the ‘compassion given freely by God to humankind’, and the word passed into Old French (in the form merci) with the broader sense ‘compassion’, and hence ‘forbearance from punishment’. English took it over and has continued to use it in much the same way, but its main role in modern French is as the word for ‘thank you’.

mercy (n.)

late 12c., "God's forgiveness of his creatures' offenses," from Old French mercit, merci (9c.) "reward, gift; kindness, grace, pity," from Latin mercedem (nominative merces) "reward, wages, pay hire" (in Vulgar Latin "favor, pity"), from merx (genitive mercis) "wares, merchandise" (see market (n.)). In Church Latin (6c.) applied to the heavenly reward of those who show kindness to the helpless.

Meaning "disposition to forgive or show compassion" is attested from early 13c. As an interjection, attested from mid-13c. In French largely superseded by miséricorde except as a word of thanks. Seat of mercy "golden covering of the Ark of the Covenant" (1530) is Tyndale's loan-translation of Luther's gnadenstuhl, an inexact rendering of Hebrew kapporeth, literally "propitiatory."

1. The Emperor must realize that he has us at his mercy.

皇帝必须意识到我们任由他处置。

2. Ordinary people are at the mercy of faceless bureaucrats.

普通人的命运任凭那些平庸刻板的官僚们摆布。

3. They meant to finish her off, swiftly and without mercy.

他们打算毫不留情地迅速结果了她。

4. He's going to throw himself on the mercy of the court.

他准备听凭法庭发落。

5. Kelly prayed that God would judge her with mercy.

凯莉祈求在接受最后的审判时能得到上帝的怜悯。