woord

Forms

woord n (plural woorden, diminutive woordje n)^[1] In the eastern dialects the plural is also formed with umlaut, as weurd.^[2] Middle Dutch also had the forms waert and wart.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch wort, inherited from Old Dutch wort, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *word, inherited from Proto-Germanic *wurdą (“word”).^[5][1][6] The same noun is Old Saxon word, Old High German wort (modern German Wort), Old Frisian word, Old English word (modern English word), Old Norse orð and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (waurd), all of them first meaning a spoken utterance.^[5][6] Old Frisian also has werd, which seems to continue an ablaut form ⟨*werda-⟩, and Franck and Van Wijk suggest an old ablaut for the Middle Dutch variant ⟨waert⟩ too.^[5][4]

Outside Germanic the word is related to Latin verbum (“word”), with Latin ⟨b⟩ for the Indo-European ⟨dʰ⟩, and to Lithuanian var̃das (“name”) and Latvian vārds (“word”).^[5][7][2] These go back to Proto-Indo-European *werdʰo- beside ⟨*wr̥dʰo-⟩.^[5][1] The EWN thinks the stem may have been simplified from ⟨*u(e)rh₁-dʰh₁-o-⟩, a compound of the root *werh₁- (“to speak”) of Ancient Greek εἴρω (eírō, “I say”) and the root *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place”) of doen.^[5] De Vries took it as a formation with ⟨-dh-⟩ from a root “to speak solemnly”, comparing Sanskrit व्रत (vratá, “command, vow”).^[7] Kroonen adds that if a Hittite verb belongs here, the root began with a laryngeal.^[6] Trier (1951) linked it instead with a root “to bind, fence in” and explained it as the word solemnly spoken at the assembly inside its sacred enclosure, an idea De Vries only reports.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found in the Old Dutch Utrecht baptismal vow of the late 8th century: end ec forsacho allum dioboles uuercum and uuordum, “and I renounce all the devil's works and words”.^[8][5][9] The Wachtendonck Psalms of the 10th century have Herro giuit uuort predicondon, “the Lord gives the word to those who preach”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The EWN notes that the first sense, a spoken utterance, is still alive in many set phrases, such as het woord voeren, aan het woord zijn, te woord staan and woord en daad, and in antwoord, voorwoord and verwoorden.^[5] Early in all the West and North Germanic languages it also came to mean the smallest independent unit of language with a meaning of its own, today the neutral sense.^[5] A Limburg glossary of 1240 uses it for Latin verbum, and a charter of 1277 notes tween worden, two words written in above the line, so that the corrections could not later be used against the deed.^[10][5]

Het woord ons heren (1285), the word of God, follows the sense of Latin verbum, and the sense “word of honour” follows French parole d'honneur.^[11][5] The proverb wiens brood men eet, diens woord men spreekt, “whose bread one eats, his word one speaks”, is in Smetius and matches Medieval Latin cuius enim panem manduco carmina canto.^[12] Southern Dutch writers sometimes wrote een woord van iets after French un mot de, where the north has een woord over iets.^[13]

The word was taken into Negerhollands (woord, wort), Berbice Dutch (woto) and Sranan (wortu), and through Sranan into Saramaccan (woútu).^[14][1] Afrikaans has woord.^[1]

Timeline

• 791–800 – Old Dutch uuordum “words” in the Utrecht baptismal vow.^[8][5]
• 901–1000 – Uuort in the Wachtendonck Psalms.^[5]
• 1240 – Middle Dutch wort glosses Latin verbum in Limburg.^[10][5]
• 1277 – A charter mentions tween worden written in above the line.^[5]
• 1285 – Tword ons heren, the word of God.^[5]
• 1620 – Met werreck oft met woordt, “by deed or by word”.^[2]
• 1861 – Zijn woord opeten “to eat one's words” is recorded as regional.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word: a sound or group of sounds with a meaning of its own, or its written form: hoe spel je dit woord?^[15][16][1]
2. What someone says; a remark, an utterance: ze zei een paar vriendelijke woorden.^[15][2]
3. The act of speaking, the floor: het woord nemen, aan het woord zijn.^[15][5]
4. A promise, one's word of honour: zijn woord gestand doen, to keep one's promise.^[15][16]
5. (Christianity) het Woord, the word of God, the Bible.^[16][11]
6. (computing) A fixed-size unit of data handled by a processor.^[16]

Word family

• antwoord
• woordenboek
• woordelijk
• woordeloos
• bijwoord
• lidwoord
• voorwoord
• nawoord
• erewoord
• leenwoord
• scheldwoord
• verwoorden

Related words

• verbum
• English word
• German Wort

Usage notes

A dialect word woord, usually woerd, means a drake.^[2][7] The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal explains woord and woerd as dialect forms of waard “drake”, a word of uncertain origin.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
3. ^ Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
4. ^ a b Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
9. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
10. ^ a b Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
11. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2005), Groot leenwoordenboek, Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale
12. ^ Stoett, F. A. (1923–1925), Nederlandsche spreekwoorden, spreekwijzen, uitdrukkingen en gezegden, 4th ed., 3 vols., Zutphen: Thieme
13. ^ Vreese, Willem de (1899), Gallicismen in het Zuidnederlandsch, Gent: Siffer
14. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
15. ^ a b c d Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
16. ^ a b c d WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org