misericors

Misericors is a Latin adjective meaning merciful, compassionate, or pitying. It belongs to a semantic field built around mercy, from the verb misereor (to pity) and the noun misericordia (mercy). The form misericors shares the same root as these words, and Latin grammars treat it as a regular adjective that can describe persons or actions characterized by mercy. An example phrase is Deus misericors, commonly translated as “merciful God.”

Used chiefly in late antique and medieval Christian Latin, misericors occurs in liturgical, hagiographic, and patristic texts, where it is employed as an epithet for God, Christ, or virtuous individuals. Outside religious contexts, it appears rarely in classical authors, and in modern English discussions it is mostly encountered as a historical or linguistic term rather than active vocabulary.

Related terms include misericordia (mercy), misereor (to pity), and other forms built from the same root. The word remains of interest to scholars studying Latin religious language and the development of the concept of mercy in Western thought.