merge: [17] Merge comes from Latin mergere, which meant ‘dive, plunge’ (it was also the source of English emerge [16], which etymologically means ‘rise out of a liquid’, immerse [17], and submerge [17]). Merge was originally used for ‘immerse’ in English too, and the modern meaning ‘combine into one’ did not emerge fully until as recently as the 20th century. It arose from the notion of one thing ‘sinking’ into another and losing its identity; in the 1920s this was applied to two business companies amalgamating, and the general sense ‘combine’ followed from it. => emerge, immerse, submerge
merge (v.)
1630s, "to plunge or sink in," from Latin mergere "to dip, dip in, immerse, plunge," probably rhotacized from *mezgo, from PIE *mezg- "to dip, plunge" (cognates: Sanskrit majjati "dives under," Lithuanian mazgoju "to wash"). Legal sense of "absorb an estate, contract, etc. into another" is from 1726. Related: Merged; merging. As a noun, from 1805.
双语例句
1. Like a chameleon, he could merge unobtrusively into the background.
他就像一条变色龙，可以神不知鬼不觉地隐藏在背景中间。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The rivers merge just north of a vital irrigation system.
