My Lady—for that was what we always called her about mirk—was neither more nor less fortunate with her children than most mothers.
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.
mirk was frightened, and quickly dipped his little finger into the bottle.
What could it have been in the mirk of the night, getting towards midnight, and black as winter and desolation could make it!
Bring a candle, the grand staircase is as mirk as a yule midnight.
And mirk told her that he was a prince, and had come to see the Princess of Doghead.
I shall go down to mirk, after a little, to bring away my wife.
And I warrant thou told'st him thou met'st me with a glee woman in the mirk loaning yonder?
He is so good as to say he likes mirk, I understand; and the village folks like him.
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).
