めり

From Early Middle Japanese めり (meri).

Thought to be a contraction of 目 (me, "eye") +‎ あり (ari, “to be”) or 見 (mi, "to see") +‎ あり (ari, “to be”).^[1]

めり • (-meri) ^†-ri

1. (Classical Japanese) A modal auxiliary verb indicating conjecture based on what is seen: it looks like; it seems like
   • c. 1001–1014, Murasaki Shikibu, Genji Monogatari

     わざとあめるを、早(はや)うものせよかし。

     Wazato a meru o, hayō monoseyo kashi.

     It seems to be a special , so please go early.

• This word is morphologically a clitic. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar.
• Attaches to the 終止形 (shūshikei, “terminal form”) of most inflectable words, but to the 連体形 (rentaikei, “attributive form”) of ラ行変格活用 (“ra-irregular”) verbs. In the latter case, the final る is usually omitted in writing, e.g. はべめり (habemeri) instead of はべるめり (haberumeri); this is interpreted as unwritten 撥音便 (hatsuonbin), so that はべめり (habemeri) is read as はべんめり (habenmeri).^[2]
• Conjectures based on something seen, as opposed to なり (nari) which conjectures based on something heard.