ware

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See also: Ware, wãrẽ, warē, wäre, and -ware

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English ware, war, from Old English wær, from Proto-West Germanic *war, from Proto-Germanic *waraz.

Pronunciation

Adjective

ware (comparative more ware, superlative most ware)

  1. (poetic) Aware.
    • 1485 July, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter I, in William Caxton, editor, Le Morte D’Arthur‎, volume 1:
      And in like wise as she said so they departed, that neither the king nor none of his council were ware of their departing.
Usage notes

Replaced by intensified form aware.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic *waru, from Proto-Germanic *warō (“attention”) as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to watch, keep guard”), whence also ward. Cognate with Dutch waar (“goods offered for sale or use”) and Swedish vara, with the same meaning.

Pronunciation

Noun

ware (usually uncountable, plural wares)

  1. (uncountable, usually in combination) Goods or a type of goods offered for sale or use.
    • 1923, John Lord, Capital and steam-power, 1750–1800‎:
      Astbury was the more successful and made frequent journeys to London, where he sold his ware and obtained further orders.
    • 2002 March 28, “Kenya National Assembly Official Record”, in parliamentary debates:
      On Sunday, a Mr. Stephen Muturi Kamau, aged 20 years, was shot dead at Dandora while he was selling his ware. This is a well known hawker. He has been hawking his ware in Dandora.
    • 2011, Tonya Kappes, Carpe Bead'em‎:
      What in the world am I going to do with tarnished silver ware? The deeper I dig, I pull out more silver with carved handles.
    • 2012, Julie Watson, Frommer's Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island‎, page 179:
      Artisans sell their ware in the historic district at the lower level of the Soldier's Barracks.
  2. (in the plural) See wares.
  3. (uncountable) Pottery or metal goods.
    damascene ware, tole ware
  4. (countable, archaeology) A style or genre of artifact.
  5. (Ireland) Crockery.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English waren (“to be ware, be on guard, be mindful, protect, guard”), from Old English warian, from Proto-West Germanic *warōn, from Proto-Germanic *warōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woarje (“to guard”).

Pronunciation

Verb

ware (third-person singular simple present wares, present participle waring, simple past and past participle wared)

  1. (obsolete or dialectal) To be ware or mindful of something.
    • 1450, Palladius on Husbondrieː
      Ware the horn and heels lest they fling a flap to thee.
    • c. 1450, Who Ðat Liste Lokeː
      Ware avoutrer untrue; Such love was never good ne may be true.
    • c. 1470, The Macro Playsː
      ‘Ware that!’ quoth Ser Wyly.
    • 1987, Kangs, Doctor Who: Paradise Towers:
      Ware cleaners.
  2. (obsolete) To protect or guard (especially oneself); to be on guard, be wary.
    Ware thee. ― Watch yourself.
Translations

Adjective

ware (comparative more ware, superlative most ware)

  1. (obsolete) Wary; cautious.
    • 1549 April 1 (Gregorian calendar), Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “.] The Thyrde Sermon of Maister Hughe Latymer whyche He Preached before the Kynge [Edward VI], wythin Hys Graces Palayce at Westminster, the XXII. Daye of Marche.”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, , London: John Day, , published 1562, →OCLC, folio 39, verso:
      He is ware inough; he is wilye, and circumſpect for ſtirring vp any ſedition.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Timothy 4:15:
      Of whom be thou ware also.
    • 1864, Thomas Oswald Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, page 385:
      Be he quite wary, as wood is ware of fire, as thigh of bramble or of thistle, he, who may be thinking to mislead these beeves or to mispossess this cattle.
Derived terms
Related terms

Etymology 4

From Middle English wor (in sewor) from Old English wār (“seaweed”), ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wīraz; compare wire. Cognate with Dutch wier (“seaweed”), Middle Dutch wier (“seaweed”).

Pronunciation

Noun

ware

  1. (obsolete, UK, dialect) Seaweed; drift seaweed; seawrack.
    • 1844, Henry Stephens, The book of the farm, page 1238:
      On many of the farms in East Lothian, from 100 to 120 Imperial acres are annually manured with sea-ware; and when I mention that 30 double-cart loads are spread on 1 acre, you may conceive the labour incurred in carting from 3000 to 3600 loads during a short season; for it is only in winter that the ware is cast ashore by storms, […]
    • 1861 April 25, “William Baird, Appellant, v. William Ranken Fortune, Respondent”, in The Scottish Jurist: Being Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and in the House of Lords on Appeal from Scotland, page 437:
      The said farm, having been possessed […] in the deed of 12th July 1794, with the privilege of taking ware from the sea-shore for the use of the farm, and having been let by them to a tenant in 1804, with "liberty of the droven sea-ware, along with the other tenants of the Elie barony, for manuring the farm," […]
    • 1896, Charles James Longman, Longman's Magazine, page 34:
      Each ware-strand, or beach where drift-weed comes to land, is set apart for a certain number of tenants on the estate to which it belongs, and each 'brook of ware' as it comes ashore is divided among these tenants, usually in proportion to their rents.
Derived terms

Etymology 5

Pronunciation

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Verb

ware (third-person singular simple present wares, present participle waring, simple past and past participle wared)

  1. (nautical) To wear, or veer.

Etymology 6

Verb

ware

  1. Old eye dialect spelling of were.
    • 1684, Historical Notices of Scotish Affairs, Selected from the Manuscripts of John Lauder of Fountainhall, Bart., One of the Senators of the College of Justice, volumes second (1683–1688), Edinburgh, published 1848, page 533:
      Againſt this ther ware many objections made by the creditors, viz., that quoad the 9000 lƀ. a year contained in his contract of marriage, they ware præferable, being præferable and prior creditors, and ſo he was ſucceſſor titulo lucrativo poſt contractum debitum; and as to the 6000 lƀ. per annum added, 1o. before that letter they had a jus quæſitum by the ſignitor; 2do. They had rights præferable.
    • c. 1815, Mary Woody, A true account of Nayomy Wise
      A larg concors ware standing round

Etymology 7

Verb

ware

  1. (obsolete) simple past of wear
    • 1553, John Brende, Historie of Quintus Curcius:
      He ware upon his head a diademe of purple interpaled with white, like as Darius was accustomed.
    • , [Philip Sidney], The Countess of Pembrookes Arcadia:
      Over all this, hee ware a certeyne Mantell of like ſtuffe, made in ſuche maner, that coming under his righte arme, and covering moſte parte of that ſyde, yt tuched not the lefte ſyde, […]
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus:  (First Quarto), London: Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, , published 1594, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
      And Countrimen my louing followers, / Plead my ſucceſſiue Title with your ſwords: / I am his firſt borne ſonne, that was the last / That ware the Imperiall Diademe of Rome, / Then let my Fathers honours liue in me, / Nor wrong mine age with this indignitie, […]

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ware”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “ware”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Verb

ware

  1. imperfect subjunctive of wees

Dutch

Pronunciation

Adjective

ware

  1. inflection of waar:
    1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
    2. definite neuter singular attributive
    3. plural attributive

Verb

ware

  1. (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive of zijn
  2. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of waren

Hausa

Pronunciation

Verb

wārḕ (grade 4)

  1. to separate things, to set things aside
  2. to secede

Japanese

Romanization

ware

  1. Rōmaji transcription of われ

Maori

Adjective

ware

  1. ignorant

Noun

ware

  1. saliva

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch *wara, from Proto-Germanic *warō, probably related to *waraz (“wary, watchful”).

Noun

wāre f

  1. merchandise, product
Inflection
Weak feminine
Singular Plural
Nominative wāre wāren
Accusative wāre wāren
Genitive wāren wāren
Dative wāre, wāren wāren
Descendants
  • Dutch: waar
  • Limburgish: waar

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

wâre

  1. first/third-person singular past subjunctive of wēsen

Further reading

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

ware

  1. Alternative form of veir

Etymology 2

Noun

ware

  1. Alternative form of werre

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Middle High German wërden, from Old High German werdan. Compare German werden.

Pronunciation

Verb

ware

  1. to become

Conjugation

Conjugation of ware
infinitive ware
past participle iss ware
future tense waerd ware
subjunctive daet ware
present tense
1st person singular wa
2nd person singular wascht
3rd person singular watt
1st person  plural ware
2nd person plural watt
3rd person plural ware
imperative du war, dihr watt

Scots

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Noun

ware (plural wares)

  1. spring, springtime
  2. cold weather in springtime
Synonyms

Etymology 2

From Middle English ware, from Old English wār, from Proto-West Germanic *wair, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wīraz; compare wire.

Pronunciation

Noun

ware (plural wares)

  1. a type of seaweed
Derived terms

Yola

Verb

ware

  1. Alternative form of war (“were”)
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 3, page 84:
      Aar gentrize ware bibbern, aamzil cou no stoane.
      Their gentry were quaking, themselves could not stand.

References

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 84
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