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ware

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Several words are spelled ware in English: the archaic adjective meaning aware or wary, the noun meaning goods, and others that are now dialect or obsolete, such as the verb meaning to beware and nouns meaning seaweed and spring.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈwɛə/[4]
  • US: /ˈwɛɹ/[4]

ware1 aware, wary

Etymology

The adjective meaning aware is inherited from Middle English war, also ware,[1][5] inherited from Old English wær (“aware, prudent, wary”),[5][2][6][3] from Proto-Germanic *waraz.[5][7] It is related to Old Saxon war (“aware, careful”), Old Norse varr (“aware”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍃 (wars, “wary, on guard”) and Old High German giwar (“aware”) (now German gewahr),[2][7][8][9] and to Old English ġewær, the source of aware.[2][3] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to perceive, watch out for”),[5] and Klein and Orel compare Ancient Greek οὖρος (oûros, “watcher, warder”),[9][7] while Klein and Weekley compare Latin vereor (“to observe with awe, revere, fear”).[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aware, informed: in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Parker manuscript), in the annal for 917, where the people of the land became ware of a band of Danes and fought them.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used the word for "aware", "on one's guard" and "prudent, cunning, skilled", the last often coupled with wise.[2][5] Johnson (1755) remarked that aware was the usual word in its place,[11] and Weekley that it had been replaced by wary.[10] Ayto notes that it is now virtually obsolete except in the derivatives aware, beware and wary;[12] Hoad likewise sees it surviving in beware.[13] Merriam-Webster Unabridged still records the sense "aware, conscious", with a quotation from Mary Webb.[1]

Timeline

  • 917 – aware, cognizant, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[2][6]
  • Old English – on one's guard, watchful; prudent, cunning.[2]
  • a1240–1583 – careful or guarded in action (obsolete).[2]
  • 1307–1425 – skilled in something (obsolete).[2]
  • 1755 – Johnson notes that aware is commonly said instead.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (archaic) Aware or conscious of something.[1][2][3]
  2. (archaic) Wary, watchful, on one's guard.[1][2][11]

ware2 goods, pottery

Etymology

The noun meaning goods is inherited from Middle English ware,[14][1] inherited from Old English waru (“article of merchandise”),[5][2][15][16] from Proto-Germanic *warō.[5][15][7] It corresponds to Old Frisian were, Middle Dutch ware (now Dutch waar), Middle Low German ware and Old Norse vara, with Swedish vara and Danish vare;[2][15][9][3] German Ware is from Low German or Dutch.[2] The word is probably the same as the noun for watchful care or protection in Old English, used in a concrete sense, the original meaning being "an object of care, something kept in custody",[2][5][15][9][13] and so related to the adjective ware1.[15][9][3] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to perceive, watch out for”);[5] Barnhart gives the Indo-European form as *worá.[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Articles of merchandise, goods, both as a collective singular and in the plural: in Ælfric's Homilies,[2] about 1000.[15]

Semantic evolution

The word is usually plural, wares, except in compounds,[15][10][5] and in its general sense it has been replaced by goods and merchandise.[10] The compounds name the material, the character or the use of the articles, as in earthenware, hardware, chinaware, tinware and tableware;[5][13] warehouse is recorded from 1349.[15] Middle English had ape-ware, tricks or false goods (mid-13th century), and wild-ware, furs and skins as a commodity (late 14th century).[5] Ware also meant textile fabrics (1442–1748) and livestock (1422–1732);[2] field produce from before 1661, now dialect and in the trade term ware potatoes;[2] and vessels of baked clay from 1741, the source of the sense "pottery".[2] Jocular uses for a woman date from 1558,[2] and the slang sense "the female sexual organs" was used by Nashe in 1593.[17][2] A verb ware, to deal in wares, was formed from the noun in the 18th century.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English waru, goods, in Ælfric's Homilies.[15][2]
  • c. 1175 – Middle English ware.[15]
  • c. 1200 – transferred and figurative use.[2]
  • 1349 – warehouse.[15]
  • 1398 – with a defining word, as mercery-ware.[2]
  • 1558 – applied jocularly to women.[2]
  • before 1661 – field produce, crops.[2]
  • 1741 – vessels of baked clay, pottery.[2]
  • 1877 – oyster spat in its third year.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (usually plural) Articles offered for sale; goods, merchandise: The potter set out her wares at the fair.[1][2][3]
  2. (in combination) Articles of a particular kind or material: glassware, silverware.[18][2]
  3. Pottery or porcelain, especially of a specified type: jasper ware.[18][2]
  4. (trade and dialect) Potatoes or other field produce grown for sale.[2]

Word family

Usage notes

The verb ware, to beware of or avoid, is from Old English warian and now survives mainly in cries to hounds and horses in hunting, such as ware wheat.[1][2][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ 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)
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  16. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins