Or catch'd wi' warlocks i' the mirk, By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.
With this Prince mirk spurred the mare, and at once reached the tent.
And mirk told her that he was a prince, and had come to see the Princess of Doghead.
mirk was frightened, and quickly dipped his little finger into the bottle.
Bring a candle, the grand staircase is as mirk as a yule midnight.
Why, here I have had no letter at all from mirk, and yet I am content.
I shall go down to mirk, after a little, to bring away my wife.
He is so good as to say he likes mirk, I understand; and the village folks like him.
It's the best thing we've had at mirk yet, and—— Ah, the devil!
Is it this fancy of his, then, think you, which alone keeps him here at mirk?
c.1300, myrke, from Old Norse myrkr "darkness," from Proto-Germanic *merkwjo- (cf. Old English mirce "murky, black, dark; murkiness, darkness," Danish mǿrk "darkness," Old Saxon mirki "dark"); cognate with Old Church Slavonic mraku, Serbo-Croatian mrak, Russian mrak "darkness;" Lithuanian merkti "shut the eyes, blink," from PIE *mer- "to flicker" (see morn). Murk Monday was long the name in Scotland for the great solar eclipse of March 29, 1652 (April 8, New Style).
