Etymology

withersake

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Today it means: An apostate or perfidious renegade. Full definition →

Middle English withersake ← Old English wiþersaca ← Proto-West Germanic *wiþrasakō
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wiþrasakō
  2. Old English · inherited fromwiþersaca“adversary, enemy; betrayer; apostate”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromwithersake
  4. English todaywithersake

From Middle English withersake, from Old English wiþersaca (“adversary, enemy; betrayer; apostate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþrasakō, equivalent to wither- (“against”) + sake. Cognate with Middle High German widersache, Modern German Widersacher (“adversary, opponent, antagonist, foe”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.