Etymologically
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weary

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈwɪə̯ɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈwɪɹi/, /ˈwɪɚi/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English weri, also wery,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wērig (“tired, exhausted; sad”),[2][5][6][7] also wǣrig,[8][9][3] from Proto-West Germanic *wōrīg,[8][10][11][9] itself from Proto-Germanic *wōr-, a base of uncertain origin.[11][5] It is cognate with Old Saxon wōrig (“weary, worn out”), Old Frisian wirch (“tired”) and Old High German wuorag (“drunk”),[5][2][12][13] and is related to wōrian (“to wander, totter”).[2][12][9][4] The OED also compares Old Norse œrr (“mad, furious”) and órar (“fits of madness”).[5][9][13] The ultimate origin is unknown;[2] the OED and Barnhart suggest a link with Ancient Greek ὡρακιᾶν (hōrakiân, “to faint, become dizzy”),[5][12][4][13] and Orel with ὦρος (ôros, “sleep”).[14] Weekley and Skeat note that it is not related to wear.[15][16] The verb is inherited from Middle English werien, inherited from Old English wērgian (“to become tired”), with the prefixed gewērgian (“to tire out”), formed from the adjective.[2][5][8][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tired, fatigued: Barnhart dates the Old English adjective to about 725, in Beowulf,[17][12] and the OED's earliest example is from the early Old English translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History.[5] Bosworth–Toller records it of physical exhaustion, of a sad heart, and of impatience with the continuance of something painful.[7]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used the word both for bodily fatigue and for being dispirited or heartsick, and, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care, for being tired of something tedious.[5][2][7] Etymonline dates the sense "discontented with a continual recurrence" to about 1200.[2] From about 1350 weary could also describe whatever causes tiredness.[5][18] From about 1450 it was also used of something that tries one's patience;[5] the sense "stale, depressingly familiar" dates from 1884.[5] Chaucer used the adjective 34 times.[19] In Scots and Irish English weary could mean tedious or slow,[20] and weary on or weary fa’ was a mild curse,[20][13] a noun that Merriam-Webster derives from wary, first known in 1788.[13] Since the 17th century weary has also been a euphemism for drunk.[21]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English wērig, tired, in Beowulf.[12]
  • Old English – dispirited; tired of something; verb, to grow weary and to tire out.[5]
  • c. 1175 – Middle English weri.[12]
  • c. 1225 – verb, to grow tired of something.[5]
  • 1340 – verb, to tire someone by being tedious.[5]
  • c. 1350 – causing tiredness.[5]
  • c. 1450 – tiresome, tedious.[5]
  • 1678 – euphemistically, drunk.[21]
  • 1884 – stale, depressingly familiar.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Very tired, especially after long effort; exhausted.[18][13][5]
  2. Having lost interest or patience; bored or fed up, usually with of: weary of the endless meetings.[18][13][5]
  3. Showing tiredness: a weary sigh.[18][5]
  4. Causing tiredness; tiresome or tedious.[18][13][5]

Verb

  1. To make tired.[18][13][5]
  2. To grow tired.[13][5]
  3. To lose interest or patience, usually with of: The children soon wearied of the game.[18][13][5]

Word family

  • wearily
  • weariness
  • wearyingly
  • aweary
  • outweary
  • overweary
  • unweary
  • weariless
  • wearisome

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b 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)
  4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  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 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  17. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  20. ^ a b 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)
  21. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com