Weoruld

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An Old English term for the earthly world and human life ; a period of time or the span of a generation
2. The archaic word for the earth and the mortal life lived upon it ; an age or era of history
3. Old English for the created world and mortal existence ; a long stretch of time or a single lifetime

Etymology: Old English "weoruld" meant "age" or "lifetime" of humankind, and it was built from two parts: "wer", "man" (the same root as Latin "vir" and English "werewolf"), and "eld", "age" or "generation," which is why the sense was "the age of man." The compound originally pointed to a human lifespan or era rather than to the physical earth. Over centuries, the word narrowed and broadened in ways that shaped its meaning today. The Old English form was generally written "woruld" or "weorold" in various dialects, and it lives on in modern English as "world." The "eld" element survives in "old" itself, which shares the same root. The "wer" part is the reason the word once carried a sense of human time, not cosmic space. The shift from "age of man" to "the earth and all that is on it" happened gradually, as writers used the term for the human sphere set against God and eternity. This led to the modern sense of "world" as a whole realm of existence.