Hwar

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. An old spelling of the word where, used to ask about or refer to the location of something
2. An archaic form of where that asks in which place or position something is found
3. A obsolete variant of where meaning in what place, or at which location

Etymology: Written as "hwar," this is an Old English spelling of the question word "where," and the older form preserves a sound that modern English has mostly lost. Old English scribes wrote the opening as "hw," as in "hwæt" for "what" and "hwa" for "who," reflecting a voiceless sound closer to a breathy "h" followed by "w." The root goes back to a Proto-Germanic "hwar," built on the question stem it shares with "who," "what," and "whether." That shared stem explains why these words begin alike and why German "wo" and Dutch "waar" belong to the same family. During the Middle English period, scribes gradually switched the order to "wh," which is the spelling modern English keeps. In most accents the breathy onset has since merged with a plain "w" sound, so "where" and "wear" are now pronounced alike for many speakers. Scots still preserves the older sound in "whar."