weard

Forms

weard m (strong a-stem; genitive singular weardes, nominative plural weardas)^[1] weard f (genitive singular wearde) “watch, guard”.^[2][3] Northumbrian uard in Cædmon's Hymn in the Moore Bede.^[4][5]

Etymology

The masculine noun for “guardian, keeper” and the feminine noun for “watch, guarding” share one root.^[2][6][1] The masculine is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ward, from Proto-Germanic *wardaz (“guard”);^[1] Wiktionary relates it to the verb Proto-Germanic *warōną (“to be on guard”), the source of warian.^[1] Its cognates are Old Saxon ward, Old High German wart and Old Norse vǫrðr, and the compound Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (daurawards, “doorkeeper”).^[7][8][3]

The feminine is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wardu, from Proto-Germanic *wardō.^[1] It matches Old Saxon warda (“guard, post”), Old High German warta (“watch, guard”) and Old Norse varða (“cairn, beacon”), and Gothic has 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌰 (daurawarda, “female doorkeeper”).^[9][10][11]

Köbler derives both, with a query, from the root Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to perceive, heed”) (Pokorny 1164).^[6][8] Wiktionary reconstructs the masculine as *wor-tós to that root, and Etymonline also takes it from a suffixed form of it.^[1][12] Holthausen and Köbler link the nouns with wær (“wary”).^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The masculine is recorded first, in the Northumbrian copy of Cædmon's Hymn in the Moore Bede, written in or soon after 737: “Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard”, “Now we must praise the guardian of the kingdom of heaven”.^[4][5] The feminine first appears in a dated manuscript in the Old English Orosius, of the first half of the tenth century, where a man is said to have been taken “on hergiunge oþþe æt wearde”, “in a raid or on watch”.^[13][5][2]

Semantic evolution

The masculine means a guard, watchman or sentinel, and more widely a guardian, keeper or protector: the guards of Christ's tomb and of a prison are weardas.^[2] In poetry it also means a lord or king and a possessor.^[3][14][15] In Beowulf the coastguard who watches the cliffs is weard Scyldinga.^[2] It forms many compounds, among them hordweard, landweard and ēþelweard.^[3]

The feminine means watch and guard, mostly in the phrase wearde healdan “to keep watch”, and also protection and guardianship.^[2][14] Clark Hall adds an advanced post, from the Orosius, and lying in wait, an ambush.^[14]

Both lived on as Middle English ward, warde: the MED traces its sense “a guard, sentinel; a guardian” to the masculine noun.^[16] Etymonline gives Middle English ward the senses “keeping, care, safekeeping”; it is now ward.^[12]

Timeline

• c. or after 737 – hefaenricaes uard “guardian of the heavenly kingdom” in Cædmon's Hymn in the Moore Bede.^[4][5]
• 890×897 – rodra wearde “guardian of the skies” in the verse preface to the Pastoral Care.^[17][5]
• s. x¹ or x²/⁴ – the feminine æt wearde “on watch” and the masculine betuh þæm weardum “between the guards” in the Old English Orosius.^[13][5]
• s. x/xi – weard Scyldinga and wearde healdan in the Beowulf manuscript.^[18][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine) a guard, watchman, sentinel.^[2][15]
2. (masculine) a guardian, keeper, protector.^[2][3]
3. (masculine, poetic) a lord, king.^[14][15]
4. (masculine, poetic) a possessor.^[14][3]
5. (feminine) watch, ward, the keeping of guard.^[2][3]
6. (feminine) protection, guardianship.^[14][15]
7. (feminine) an advanced post.^[14]
8. (feminine) lying in wait, an ambush.^[14]

Word family

• weardian
• hordweard
• landweard
• ēþelweard
• goldweard
• bātweard
• seleweard
• dorweard
• ǣġweard
• hēafodweard

Descendants

• Middle English warde (→ Scots ward; English ward)^[1]

Related words

• warian
• wær
• waru

Usage notes

The adverb weard “towards”, used with tō and wiþ (wiþ Rōme weard “towards Rome”), has a separate source: Heidermanns puts it with the Germanic adjective stem *warda- “turned”.^[2][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1176
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. weard
4. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 60
5. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. weard
7. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 386
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 448
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 249
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 399
15. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 223
16. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
19. ^ Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. 658