wer

Alternative forms

• were

Noun

wer (plural wers)

1. (obsolete or historical) A man; a male; a husband
   • 1862, E. William Robertson, Scotland Under Her Early Kings, page 137:

     […] the character of a horseman was inseparable connected with the knight—the military attendant of the baron, who was himself nothing more than the Wer, or Man, of the king—even the armiger, […]

   • 1864, Thomas Oswald Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England [...] from Brit. mus. ms. Cotton. Vitellius C. III, page 205:

     Further is this wort of two kinds, wer and wife, or male and female. The wer, or male, hath white blossoms, and the wife, or female, hath red or brown; either is beneficial and wonderlike, and they have on them wondrous virtue.

2. (obsolete or historical) A fine for slaying a man; wergeld.
   • 1876, Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law, page 144:

     Under the system of money compensation, the kindred of the slain must demand payment of the wer, or prosecute the feud. They had the right to the wer when paid, and must by oath release the slayer and his kindred from the feud.

   • 1895, Frederick Pollock, Frederic William Maitland, “Inheritance”, in The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, volume II, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press; Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, & Company, →OCLC, § 1 (Antiquities), page 239:

     It was so in the England of Alfred's day; the maternal kinsfolk paid a third of the wer. The Leges Henrici, which about such a matter will not be inventing new rules, tell us that the paternal kinsfolk pay and receive two-thirds, the maternal kinsfolk one-third of the wer; and this is borne out by other evidence.

Verb

wer

1. Eye dialect spelling of were.

Usage notes

• (what): In colloquial German, wer and its forms may be used in reference to things. This is often done when asking about a noun whose gender one knows to be masculine or feminine. For example: Kannst du mir mal den Dings rübergeben? – Wen? (“Could you pass me the thingamabob?” – “Pass what?”) In this case, the interrogative mirrors the grammatical gender of the noun one asks about.
• (someone): The colloquial wer meaning “someone” cannot usually be the first word in a main clause, because it could be misinterpreted as an interrogative in this position. The only exception is when it is followed by a nominalized adjective:

  Wer Neues ist in die Mannschaft gekommen. – Someone new joined the team.

Declension

Coordinate terms

• was

Derived terms

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛr/

Noun

wer (plural wers)

1. a man, a husband

Verb

wer

1. Alternative form of were

Noun

wer

1. Alternative form of werre (“war”)

Adjective

wer

1. Alternative form of werre (“worse”)

Adverb

wer

1. Alternative form of werre (“worse”)

Noun

wer

1. Alternative form of werre (“worse”)

Noun

wer

1. Alternative form of wyr (“wire”)

Declension

Related terms

• waz (“what”)

Descendants

• Central Franconian: wä
• Cimbrian: bèar, ber (Luserna)
• German: wer
• Yiddish: ווער (ver)

Noun

wer m

1. man
   • 10th century, The Wanderer:

     forþon ne mæġ wearþan wīs · wer, ǣr hē āge
     wintra dǣl in woruldrīċe. · Wita sċeal ġeþyldiġ.

     thus a man cannot become wise, before he would own
     a part of years in world-kingdom. A wise man must be patient.

2. male
   • c. 995, Ælfric, Extracts on Grammar in English

     Ǣġþer is mann ġe wer ġe wīf.

     A person is either a male or a female.

3. husband
4. (poetic) hero, warrior
5. (in compounds) civil

   werrēaf ― civil dress, civil clothing

   werþēod ― people, nation

Noun

wer m

1. weir

Noun

wer m

1. man

Noun

wer n

1. dam, weir

Pronoun

wer

1. (interrogative) who

   Wer war er?

   Who was he?

   • Hildebrandslied, ll. 7-9

     hıltıbrant gımahalta herıbranteſ ſunu her uuaſ heroro man
     feraheſ frotoro • her fragen gıſtuont
     fohem uuortum • ƿer ſin fater ƿarı […]

     Hildebrand spoke, Heribrand's son—he was a hoarier man, wiser of life;—he posed his question with few words, who his [Hadubrand's] father might be […]

Declension

Derived terms

• werold
• werwulf

Descendants

• warwulf
• werld