What does "merger" mean?

According to Oxford Dictionaries, a merger is "a combination of two things, especially companies, into one." The word comes from the French verb "merger," which the English began to use as a noun.

As a legal term, the word dates to around 1728, according to the Online Etymological Dictionary. Usages referring to business combinations date from around 1889, and the word came into common usage around 1926. An example sentence using the word is "Though Marie was skeptical of the merger at first, she eventually realized that combining her company with her rival's company would benefit both of them." In some contexts, the word is often paired with "acquisitions," as in "She is an expert in mergers and acquisitions."