Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE-MER'IT, n. [Fr. demerite; de and merite, merit, L. meritum, from mereo, to earn or deserve. The Latin demereo used in a good sense. See Merit.]

1. That which deserves punishment, the opposite of merit; an ill-deserving; that which is blamable or punishable in moral conduct; vice or crime. Mine is the merit, the demerit thine. – Dryden.
2. Anciently, merit; desert; in a good sense. – Shak.