The story
- Proto-West Germanic · derived from*beranwurti
- Old English · inherited from*berawurt
- Middle Low German · derived frombērwort
- Middle English · inherited fromberewort
- English todaybearwort
Inherited from Middle English berewort, either borrowed from Middle Low German bērwort or reflecting Old English *berawurt, *beranwurt; in either case, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *beranwurti and by surface analysis, bear + wort.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.