Etymologically
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worn

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 12:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /wɔːn/ (UK); /woɹn/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of wear, used as an adjective;[2][3][4] the verb is from Old English werian, whose participle was geworen in Etymonline's account.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Impaired or damaged by wear or use: 1508 in the OED,[6] about 1500 in Etymonline,[2] late Middle English in SOED.[3]

Semantic evolution

Of persons, wasted or exhausted by toil, age or anxiety, it is also from 1508.[6] Of words or ideas, hackneyed or trite, it is from 1569,[6] and of land, no longer fertile, from 1681.[6] Worn-out is from the 1610s of clothing and about 1700 of persons.[2] In Scots a wornweb was a thin, badly spun cloth.[7]

Timeline

  • 1508 – damaged by use; exhausted.[6]
  • 1569 – hackneyed.[6]
  • 1610s – worn-out, of clothing.[2]
  • 1681 – of land, exhausted.[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Damaged or thinned by long use: a worn carpet.
  2. Looking tired and strained; haggard.
  3. Overused; hackneyed.

Word family

  • wornness
  • footworn
  • overworn
  • shopworn
  • timeworn
  • toilworn
  • unworn
  • waterworn
  • wear
  • worn-out
  • outworn
  • well-worn

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ 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)