Is メリー mainly used in the set phrase メリークリスマス? Is the gairaigo mainly used in the set phrase (Merry Christmas!) or can it be used without the to mean "merry", such as to say "I am feeling merry"? There's also (merry-go-round), but that's more like a transliteration of a single noun. If it's mainly used in the set phrase, is there a term for loanwords used only in set phrases? **Note** : The answer notes that is not a set phrase after all.

In ordinary daily-life Japanese at the moment, `` only means a person's name 'Mary' or 'Merry'. And even for 'Mary', it is usually written as ``, and `` is seen only in a few established expressions like `` 'Mary's little lamb', `` 'Mary Poppins', or ` 2` 'Queen Mary 2'. Also 'Merry' is not much popular name, and is limited as in `` 'Merry Kitagawa'. Other than that, `` cannot be seen as a word in ordinary daily-life Japanese.

`` is a gairaigo (crucially, not wasei-eigo) that originated from `Merry Christmas`, which means that you cannot divide `` into its parts and make sense. The original English expression `Merry Christmas` can be divided into `merry` and `Christmas`, but dividing the Japanese word `` into `` and `` is no different from dividing it into `` and ``; it does not make sense, and these parts do not have any terms by which they are referred to. `` is another gairaigo that originated from `Christmas`.