Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1899-1935
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†MERVY, adj. Also marvie, and reduced form merve.
1. Of fruit, root crops, etc.: fully matured, mellow, ripe (Dmf. 1825 Jam.).Dmf. 1899 Country Schoolmaster (Wallace) 350:
Merve or Mervy, ripe, applied to apples when they are sweet and mellow.
2. “Savoury, agreeable to the taste” (n.Sc. 1825 Jam.). Poet.Sc. 1935 W. Soutar Poems in Scots 49:
And smool'd awa the mervy pith Wi' monie a mauchy mouth.
3. Of soil: easily broken down, friable (Ork. 1920 J. Firth Reminiscences (1922) 153, Ork. 1962).
[Sc. form of Eng. marrowy, full of marrow or pith, from the oblique stem of O.E. mearȝ-, Mid.Eng. mar(o)w-, with voicing of w as in Melvie. For the vowel cf. P.L.D. §48.1.(2).]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Mervy adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 5 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/mervy>
