wart

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wart, also werte,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wearte,^[5][2][6][4] from Proto-West Germanic *wartā, from Proto-Germanic *wartǭ.^[1] It is cognate with Old Frisian warte, Old Saxon warta, Middle Dutch warte, Dutch wrat, Old High German warza, German Warze, Old Norse varta, Swedish vårta and Danish vorte.^[5][4][7] The OED notes that the Middle English forms werte and wrette are regular dialect developments of the Old English word, and finds the wr- forms in both English and the continental languages remarkable;^[5] the MED compares Middle Dutch for them.^[2] Barnhart reconstructs an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *werd-, beside a related root found in Latin verrūca (“wart”) and Lithuanian viršus (“summit”).^[4] Klein, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Weekley also connect the Latin word,^[8][3][9] and Etymonline and Partridge call the link only possible.^[7][10] Klein adds Old English wearr (“callosity”),^[8][11] and Orel compares Proto-Slavic *verdъ (“wound, harm”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small hard lump on the skin: before 800, according to Barnhart,^[4] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins says around 700.^[13] The OED's first record is in the Corpus Glossary,^[5] and the Old English glossaries use it for Latin verrūca and papula.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its central meaning since Old English,^[5] when, the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes, there was even a charm against warts.^[13] Later uses extend it to other growths: a callosity on the leg of a horse (about 1523), a venereal growth (1552), small growths on other creatures (1774) and on plants (1793).^[5] A rare sense "nipple" appears about 1440 in the Promptorium Parvulorum, and the OED compares the same use in German Warze.^[5][12] Shakespeare's "Make Ossa like a wart" in Hamlet (1603) is the first figurative use for a small or disfiguring lump.^[5][15] Abusive slang senses followed: a very young subaltern in army slang (1894), an obnoxious person (1896, first in George Ade's American slang) and a junior midshipman (1916).^[5][16][17] The phrase warts and all is found by 1930, in Maugham,^[5][7] although the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins puts it in the mid 19th century.^[13] It is traced to a request that Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (1763) attributes to Oliver Cromwell, who told the painter Peter Lely to show "roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything".^[13][7]

Timeline

• before 800 – a small hard lump on the skin.^[4][5]
• before 1325 – the form wert, in the Cursor Mundi.^[4]
• c. 1440 – a nipple (obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1523 – a natural callosity on the leg of a horse or ass.^[5]
• 1552 – a syphilitic growth, a condyloma.^[5]
• 1603 – a small or disfiguring protuberance, figuratively.^[5]
• 1774 – a small growth on other living creatures.^[5]
• 1793 – in botany, a rounded growth on a plant.^[5]
• 1819 – verb, to form a wart-like growth on.^[5]
• 1894 – military slang, a very young subaltern.^[5]
• 1896 – an obnoxious person.^[5][16]
• 1916 – naval slang, a junior midshipman or cadet.^[5]
• 1930 – warts and all, without hiding blemishes.^[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, firm growth on the skin, caused by a virus; a verruca.^[18][3][17]
2. A similar growth on an animal or on a plant.^[3][18][5]
3. An unsightly feature; a flaw.^[17][5]
4. warts and all: with all faults shown, nothing hidden: a warts-and-all account of the campaign.^[18][17][5]
5. (colloquial) An obnoxious or objectionable person.^[5][17][16]
6. (military slang) A very young officer or midshipman.^[5][17]

Word family

• warted
• wartless
• warty
• warthog
• worrywart

Related words

• verruca

Usage notes

In Shetland and Orkney wart was also a high hill or mound once used for signalling, which Wright compares with ward.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)