Halfway done. Just keep telling yourself that. Halfway done.
Anyway, merit.
Merit showed up in the early thirteenth century meaning, and I’m totally serious, spiritual credit, then, a century later, spiritual award. It comes from the Old French merite, which had meanings from wages to thanks to divine pity (I could not make this up). Before that itwas the classical Latin meritum, which is just a merit, a service or kindness. It can be traced even further back to the Proto Indo European, (s)mer, assign.
So basically, a merit is afterlife points. I assume when you
get enough, you can trade them in for a pencil case or something.
Sources