Etymology

worse

W4O1R1S1E1

Today it means: Less skillfully. Full definition →

Middle English worse ← Old English wiersa ← Proto-West Germanic *wirsiʀō
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*wirsizô
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wirsiʀō
  3. Old English · inherited fromwiersa
  4. Middle English · inherited fromworse
  5. English todayworse

From Middle English worse, werse, from Old English wiersa, from Proto-West Germanic *wirsiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *wirsizô. Cognate with Dutch wers (“worse”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.