word
verbEtymology
From Middle English word, from Old English word, from Proto-West Germanic *word, from Proto-Germanic *wurdą (“word”), from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰom (“word”), from *werh₁- (“to say, speak”). Doublet of verb, verve, and vort; further related to vrata. Cognates Cognate with Scots wird (“word”), North Frisian uurd, Uurt, wurd, wårde, wür (“word”), Saterland Frisian Woud, Wud (“word”), West Frisian wurd (“word”), Alemannic German wort, wourd, wuart, wòrt, wört (“word”), Bavarian boart, bort, bört, Wurt (“word”), Cimbrian bóart, bort (“word”), Dutch woord (“word”), German Wort (“word”), German Low German Woord, Woort (“word”), Limburgish waord, Woërt (“word”), Luxembourgish Wuert (“word”), Mòcheno bourt (“word”), Vilamovian wiüt, wuyt (“word”), Yiddish וואָרט (vort, “word”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ord (“word”), Elfdalian uord (“word”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Scanian orð (“word”), Gutnish ård (“word”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (waurd, “word”); also Ancient Greek ῥητός (rhētós, “spoken, stipulated”); also Latin verbum (“word”), Umbrian 𐌖𐌄𐌓𐌚𐌀𐌋𐌄 (uerfale, “temple”), Ancient Greek εἴρω (eírō, “to say, speak, tell”), Latgalian vuords (“name; word”), Latvian vārds (“name; word”), Lithuanian var̃das (“name”), Russian врать (vratʹ, “to lie”), Serbo-Croatian ва̏рати, vȁrati (“to cheat, deceive, trick, swindle; to be mistaken”), Armenian հորջորջել (horǰorǰel, “to call, name”), Ashkun vīri (“word”), Kamkata-viri vëri, viri (“word”), Prasuni veri, verī, vëre, vëri (“word”), Sanskrit व्रत (vrata, “command; law; will”).
To say or write (something) using particular words; to phrase (something).
- strongly worded letter
- I’m not sure how to word this letter to the council.
Obsolete To flatter with words, to cajole.
- He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not / be noble to myself.1607, William Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, act 5, scene 2:
To ply or overpower with words.
- […] if one were to be worded to death, Italian is the fittest Language [for that task]1621 November 30, James Howell, letter to Francis Bacon, from Turin:
- […] if a man were to be worded to death, or stoned to death by words, the High-Dutch were the fittest [language for that task].1829 April 23, “Webster's Dictionary”, in The North American Review, volume 28, page 438:
Rare To conjure with a word.
- Against him […] who could word heaven and earth out of nothing, and can when he pleases word them into nothing again.c. 1645-1715, Robert South, Sermon on Psalm XXXIX. 9:
- "Postcolonialism" might well be another linguistic construct, desperately begging for a referent that will never show up, simply because it never existed on its own and was literally worded into existence by the very term that pretends to be born from it.1994, “Liminal Postmodernisms”, in Postmodern Studies, volume 8, page 162:
1 more example
- The being of each person is worded into existence in the Word, […]2013, Carla Mae Streeter, Foundations of Spirituality: The Human and the Holy, →ISBN, page 92:
Archaic To speak, to use words; to converse, to discourse.
- Thus wording timidly among the fierce: / "O Father, I am here the simplest voice, […]"1818–1819, John Keats, “Hyperion, a Fragment”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, page 181: