Weornan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To decline, decay, or come to an end, as an Old English verb meaning to perish and pass away gradually
2. An Old English verb describing something that fades, withers, or dies out over time until it is gone
3. Meaning to perish or waste away, a verb from Old English used of things that decline and come to nothing

Etymology: Old English "weornan" meant "to wither, fade, or decay," and it is the ancestor of the modern English "wear" in its sense of becoming worn down by use. The word is attested in Old English texts, and its verb form appears in the Anglo-Saxon period, long before any sense of wearing clothing emerged. Its earliest and most literal sense was of things drying up or failing, the same idea that survives in the ancient root shared with the German "wer-" forms. The shift from decay to clothing came through the idea of gradual loss and exhaustion. Something that is constantly rubbed or used slowly loses its substance, so "wear" came to mean the gradual damage that use inflicts, and then the act of having something on one's body, since clothes are the things most worn down by daily use. The sense of clothing became dominant by the later Middle English period, and the older meaning of withering largely faded from everyday speech.