This conversation often bleeds easily into a “the more the merrier” logic followed by some joke about polygamy.
For Tonight, the more may be the merrier where changes are concerned.
And when it comes to faith, family, and financial success, the more the merrier as far as the GOP is concerned.
I'm not actually annoyed about it, because I really like pizza, and the more pizza, the merrier.
Instead, Obama enjoyed a brief flashback and insulted his merrier minions.
Yet all the while, Taffy seemed happier and the women the merrier.
Toby was quite a new visitor, and, well––the more the merrier.
A merrier set of gentlemen not even my experience had ever beheld.
Three happier, merrier girls could not have been found the world over.
"The merrier the heart the longer the life," says Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy.
Old English myrge "pleasing, agreeable, pleasant, sweet; pleasantly, melodiously," from Proto-Germanic *murgijaz, which probably originally meant "short-lasting," (cf. Old High German murg "short," Gothic gamaurgjan "to shorten"), from PIE *mreghu- "short" (see brief (adj.)). The only exact cognate for meaning outside English was Middle Dutch mergelijc "joyful."
Connection to "pleasure" is likely via notion of "making time fly, that which makes the time seem to pass quickly" (cf. German Kurzweil "pastime," literally "a short time;" Old Norse skemta "to amuse, entertain, amuse oneself," from skamt, neuter of skammr "short"). There also was a verbal form in Old English, myrgan "be merry, rejoice." For vowel evolution, see bury (v.).
Bot vchon enle we wolde were fyf, þe mo þe myryer. [c.1300]The word had much wider senses in Middle English, e.g. "pleasant-sounding" (of animal voices), "fine" (of weather), "handsome" (of dress), "pleasant-tasting" (of herbs). Merry-bout "an incident of sexual intercourse" was low slang from 1780. Merry-begot "illegitimate" (adj.), "bastard" (n.) is from 1785. Merrie England (now frequently satirical or ironic) is 14c. meri ingland, originally in a broader sense of "bountiful, prosperous." Merry Monday was a 16c. term for "the Monday before Shrove Tuesday" (Mardi Gras).
