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Etymology and origin of the English word wort

English has two old words spelled wort, one for a plant and one for the liquid used in brewing; they come from one Germanic base.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /wɜːt/, /wɔːt/[4]
  • US: /wɝt/, /woɹt/[4]

wort1 plant, herb

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
830 before 830, Vespasian Psalter
Inherited from
Old English wyrt via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *wrād-
Etymology tree of wort1
inherited borrowed derived
Old English wyrt
English wort

Etymology

The word for a plant is inherited from Middle English wort, earlier wurt,[2][5][6] inherited from Old English wyrt (“root, herb, vegetable, plant, spice”),[7][3][8] from Proto-Germanic *wurtiz,[7][2][9] from Proto-Indo-European *wrād- (“branch, root”).[7][2][10] Cognates are Old Saxon wurt (“herb, plant, root”), Old High German wurz (“root, herb, spice”), German Wurz, Old Norse urt (“herb”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍄𐍃 (waurts, “root”).[1][7][2] It is a zero-grade variant of the base of root,[1][11][12] and outside Germanic it is related to Latin rādīx (“root”), Ancient Greek ῥίζα (rhíza, “root”) and Welsh gwraidd (“roots”).[2][6][9] The spelling with o for u is a graphic change seen also in worm and worry.[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plant, herb, or root: before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter, according to Barnhart.[2] The OED first quotes the sense "plant used for food or medicine" from Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.[1] The sense "root" is secure only in Old English verse.[1]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense of a useful plant, the word narrowed in Middle English to cabbages and similar brassicas, from about 1325,[1] and in the plural to a soup or stew made from them, from about 1390 to 1560.[1] Chaucer's three uses are of pot-herbs or cabbage.[13] It grew archaic from the mid-17th century as plant took over,[7][14] but it stayed in old herb names such as St John's wort, which is recorded from the 15th century.[7][14] Johnson (1755) notes this survival, citing liverwort and spleenwort.[15] Since 1875 it has also been used for liverworts and hornworts in general.[1]

Timeline

  • before 830 – Old English wyrt, plant, herb, root.[2]
  • before 1200 – probably, as wurt, in Layamon.[2]
  • c. 1300 – the spelling wort.[2]
  • c. 1325 – a cabbage or similar brassica.[1]
  • c. 1390 – plural, a thick soup or stew (obsolete by 1560), in Langland.[1]
  • 15th century – St John's wort.[7]
  • 1875 – a liverwort or hornwort.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A plant, used mainly as the second part of plant names: butterwort, lungwort, soapwort.[16][11][3]
  2. A liverwort, hornwort or similar moss-like plant.[1]
  3. (archaic) A plant used for food or medicine; a potherb.[1][3][11]
  4. (obsolete) A cabbage; in the plural, cabbages.[3][11][15]

Word family

  • butterwort
  • colewort
  • liverwort
  • lungwort
  • mugwort
  • soapwort
  • spleenwort
  • St John's wort
  • woundwort

wort2 unfermented brewing liquid

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1000
Inherited from
Old English wyrt via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *wurti
Etymology tree of wort2
inherited borrowed derived
Old English wyrt
English wort

Etymology

The brewing liquid is inherited from Middle English wort,[5][3][2] inherited from Old English wyrt.[3][2][8][17] It is cognate with Middle Low German wert, Old High German wirz (“unfermented beer, steeped malt”), Old Norse virtr, Swedish vört and Danish urt,[1][6] and the OED takes these from a suffixed form of the Germanic base of wort1.[1] Other dictionaries compare Old Saxon wurtia (“spice”) and Middle High German würze (“spice, brewer's wort”).[3][2][17] Probably the plant word influenced it in English from early on, and rounding after w- could make the sound the same in any case.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An infusion of malt: about 1000, according to Barnhart.[2] The OED first quotes it from early Old English, in Bald's Leechbook.[1] Bosworth–Toller has it in a list of terms for drinks and in compounds such as māscwyrt.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its technical sense since Old English: the sweet liquid before it ferments into beer.[1][11][5] The Middle English word could also mean a similar infusion of honey and water for mead, or one used for cooking or medicine.[5] Johnson (1755) defines it as new beer, either unfermented or still fermenting.[15] From 1694 it also meant an unfermented malt infusion taken as a medicine, especially against scurvy, a use now historical.[1][11] In English dialect there were the compounds wort-ladder in Shropshire and wort-sieve in Leicestershire.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English wyrt, infusion of malt.[2][1]
  • 1539 – to cast in a person's worts, to give someone something to consider (obsolete).[1]
  • 1596 – Scots to play wort, to stir the mash (obsolete by 1644).[1]
  • 1626 – in wort, of beer, unfermented, in Bacon.[1]
  • 1694 – an unfermented infusion taken as medicine.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sweet liquid from soaking ground malt or other grain in hot water, which is fermented to make beer or distilled malt liquor.[16][3][1]
  2. (historical) An infusion of malt used as a medicine.[1][11]

Usage notes

The OED also enters an obsolete noun wort, a pig's snout (1500–07), and a verb, of a pig, to turn up the ground (1510–97); both are variants of wroot.[1]

References

  1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d 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)
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  18. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Wort.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/wort. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

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