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worth

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /wɜːθ/, US /wɝːθ/[1]

worth1 value

Etymology

The value is inherited from Middle English worth, inherited from Old English weorþ (“of a specified value; worthy, valued, honourable”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *werþaz,[2] which is of uncertain origin;[2] Boutkan finds no Indo-European etymology for it.[2] Its cognates include Old Frisian werth, Old Saxon werth, Dutch waard, German wert and Old Norse verðr,[3][5][6] and Gothic has wairþs.[2][4] Old Church Slavonic vrědŭ and Lithuanian vertas “worth” are thought to be borrowings from Germanic.[2] The noun is Old English weorþ (“value, price”), a noun use of the adjective.[2][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the value of a specified amount: Old English weorþ, recorded before 695.[3][8] The noun, “monetary value, price”, is from about 825.[8]

Semantic evolution

Old English also used the adjective for “suitable, proper” and “deserving”.[2] As a quasi-preposition, “equivalent to, of the value of”, it is from about 1200.[2] The noun meant “excellence, nobility” from about 1200,[2] the relative value of a thing from 1340,[8][9] and personal merit from 1591.[8][7] “Having wealth amounting to” is from 1460,[9] and worth as a person's wealth or property by the 1590s.[2] For what it's worth is by 1872, and for all it's worth, “to the fullest extent”, by 1874, perhaps a gambler's phrase.[2]

Timeline

  • before 695 – Old English weorþ, of the value of.[3][8]
  • c. 825 – noun, price, value.[8]
  • c. 1200 – noun, excellence.[2]
  • 1340 – noun, relative value.[8]
  • 1460 – possessing (so much) wealth.[9]
  • 1591 – noun, personal merit.[8]
  • 1872 – for what it's worth.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Equal in value to; having a value of.
  2. Deserving of; meriting: worth a visit.
  3. Having wealth amounting to.

Noun

  1. The quality that makes something valuable or useful.
  2. Market value; the amount that a given sum will buy: a dollar's worth.
  3. Wealth, riches.
  4. Merit, excellence of character.

Word family

  • worthless
  • worthwhile
  • worthy
  • pennyworth
  • net worth
  • self-worth

worth2 befall

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English worthen (“to come to be”), inherited from Old English weorþan (“to become, to befall”),[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *werþaną (“to become”), literally “to turn into”.[2] Its cognates include Old Saxon werthan, Old Norse verða, Dutch worden and German werden,[2][5][6] and Gothic has wairþan.[2][4] Watkins traces it to Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to turn, bend”),[2][10] the root of Latin vertere (“to turn”) and Sanskrit vartate “turns”.[11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To come to be, to befall: Old English weorþan, a very common verb.[2][11] The Trinity Homilies of about 1200 have Wurðe þi wil on eorðe swa hit is on heuene.[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb went out of general use, surviving only in the archaic phrase woe worth the day, “evil befall the day”, where worth is a present subjunctive;[2][5] woe worth is recorded from the late 13th century.[2] In Scots and Yorkshire dialect worth “to become” survived into the 19th century.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – Middle English wurðe (Trinity Homilies).[2]
  • late 13th century – woe worth.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. (archaic) To befall; to betide: woe worth the day.

Usage notes

A separate Old English worþ, “an enclosed place, homestead”, of unknown origin, is recorded chiefly in place-names such as those ending in -worth.[5][8]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ 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)