-worth | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

132 entries found.

late 14c., "resolute, determined," Scottish variant of stalworth, from Old English stælwierðe "good, serviceable," probably a contracted compound of staðol "base, foundation, support; stability, security" (from Proto-Germanic *stathlaz, from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm") + wierðe "good, excellent, worthy" (see worth). Another theory traces the first element of stælwierðe to Old English stæl "place," from Proto-Germanic *stælaz.

*wer- (2)

Proto-Indo-European root forming words meaning "to turn, bend."

It forms all or part of: adverse; anniversary; avert; awry; controversy; converge; converse (adj.) "exact opposite;" convert; diverge; divert; evert; extroversion; extrovert; gaiter; introrse; introvert; invert; inward; malversation; obverse; peevish; pervert; prose; raphe; reverberate; revert; rhabdomancy; rhapsody; rhombus; ribald; sinistrorse; stalwart; subvert; tergiversate; transverse; universe; verbena; verge (v.1) "tend, incline;" vermeil; vermicelli; vermicular; vermiform; vermin; versatile; verse (n.) "poetry;" version; verst; versus; vertebra; vertex; vertigo; vervain; vortex; -ward; warp; weird; worm; worry; worth (adj.) "significant, valuable, of value;" worth (v.) "to come to be;" wrangle; wrap; wrath; wreath; wrench; wrest; wrestle; wriggle; wring; wrinkle; wrist; writhe; wrong; wroth; wry.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit vartate "turns round, rolls;" Avestan varet- "to turn;" Hittite hurki- "wheel;" Greek rhatane "stirrer, ladle;" Latin vertere (frequentative versare) "to turn, turn back, be turned; convert, transform, translate; be changed," versus "turned toward or against;" Old Church Slavonic vrŭteti "to turn, roll," Russian vreteno "spindle, distaff;" Lithuanian verčiu, versti "to turn;" German werden, Old English weorðan "to become;" Old English -weard "toward," originally "turned toward," weorthan "to befall," wyrd "fate, destiny," literally "what befalls one;" Welsh gwerthyd "spindle, distaff;" Old Irish frith "against."

valor (n.)

c. 1300, "value, worth," from Old French valor, valour "valor, moral worth, merit, courage, virtue" (12c.), from Late Latin valorem (nominative valor) "value, worth" (in Medieval Latin "strength, valor"), from stem of Latin valere "be strong, be worth" (from PIE root *wal- "to be strong"). The meaning "courage" is first recorded 1580s, from Italian valore, from the same Late Latin word. (The Middle English word also had a sense of "worth or worthiness in respect of manly qualities").

value (n.)

c. 1300, "price equal to the intrinsic worth of a thing;" late 14c., "degree to which something is useful or estimable," from Old French value "worth, price, moral worth; standing, reputation" (13c.), noun use of fem. past participle of valoir "be worth," from Latin valere "be strong, be well; be of value, be worth" (from PIE root *wal- "to be strong"). The meaning "social principle" is attested from 1918, supposedly borrowed from the language of painting. Value judgment (1889) is a loan-translation of German Werturteil.

collectibles (n.)

also collectables, "things worth collecting," 1952, American English, from collectible.

halfpenny (n.)

mid-13c. (though implied in Old English healfpenigwurð "halfpenny-worth"); see half + penny.

de minimis

Latin, literally "of little things," thus, "so minor as to not be worth regarding."

avail (v.)

c. 1300, availen, "to help (someone), assist; benefit, be profitable to; be for the advantage of; have force or efficacy, serve for a purpose," apparently an Anglo-French compound of Old French a- "to" (see ad-) + vaill-, present stem of valoir "be worth," from Latin valere "be strong, be worth" (from PIE root *wal- "to be strong"). Related: Availed; availing. As a noun, from c. 1400.

countervail (v.)

late 14c., countrevaillen, "to be worth as much as," also "to prevail against, resist with equal force," from Anglo-French countrevaloir, Old French contrevaloir "to be effective against, be comparable to," from Latin phrase contra valere "to be worth against" (see contra- and valiant). Related: Countervailing.

picayune (n.)

1804, "coin of small value," in early use the Spanish half-real, a coin circulating in Louisiana, Florida, and adjacent regions, worth about 6 cents, later a 5 cent piece; probably from Louisiana French picaillon "coin worth 5 cents," earlier the French name of an old copper coin of Savoy (1750), from Provençal picaioun "small copper coin," from picaio "money," a word of uncertain origin. Adjectival figurative sense of "paltry, mean" recorded from 1813.

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