MERE. An Anglo-Saxon word still in use, sometimes meaning a lake, and generally the sea itself.
MERIDIAN, of the Earth. Is an imaginary great circle passing through the zenith and the poles, and cutting the equator at right angles. When the sun is on the meridian of any place, it is mid-day there, and at all places situated under the same meridian.—First meridian is that from which the longitude is reckoned. Magnetic meridian is not a great circle but a wavy line uniting those poles. In common acceptation, a meridian is any line supposed to be drawn from the north to the south pole; therefore a place being under the same meridian as another place, is either due north or south of it.—Plane of the meridian is the plane of this great circle, and its intersection with the sensible horizon is called the meridian line.—The meridian transit of a heavenly body is the act of passing over the said plane, when it is either due north or south of the spectator.—Ante meridiem, or A.M., before noon.—Post meridiem, or P.M., after noon.
MERIDIAN ERROR. The deviation of a transit-instrument from the plane of the meridian at the horizon; it is also termed the azimuthal error.
MERLON. That part of the parapet of a battery between two adjacent embrasures, 15 or 20 feet long in general.
MERMAID. A fabulous sea-creature of which the upper half was said to resemble a woman, the lower half a fish.
MERMAID'S GLOVE. The name of a peculiar sponge, Spongia palmata, abundant at Bermuda.
MERMAID'S PURSE. The oblong horny cases with long filiform appendages developed from each of the four corners, found on the sea-shore, being the outer covering of the eggs of several species of rays and sharks. Also, the hollow root of the sea-weed Fucus polyschides.
MERRY DANCERS. The glancings and coruscations of the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
MERRY MEN OF MAY. Dangerous currents formed by the ebb-tides.
MESON. A very old form of spelling mizen.