wem

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word wem. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word wem, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say wem in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word wem you have here. The definition of the word wem will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofwem, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Wem

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English wem, wemme, from Old English wamm (“stain, spot, scar, disgrace, defect, defilement, sin, evil, crime, injury, loss, hurt, misfortune”), from Proto-Germanic *wammaz (“stain, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *wemh₁- (“to spew, vomit”). Cognate with Icelandic vamm (“loss, damage”), Latin vomō (“vomit”, verb) (whence English vomit), Ancient Greek ἐμέω (eméō, “I spew”) (English emesis), Lithuanian vemti (“to vomit”), Sanskrit वमति (vamati, “to vomit”). The sense development would be "vomit" > "stain", "fault".

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /wɛm/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛm

Noun

wem (plural wems)

  1. (UK dialectal) A spot, stain, or mark; (by extension) a (moral) blemish or fault.
    • 1822, sir Walter Scott (bart ), Historical romances of the author of Waverley, page 513:
      "It is even so," he added, as he gazed on the Sub-Prior with astonishment; "neither wem nor wound — not so much as a rent in his frock!"
    • 1846, William Maskell, Monumenta ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, page 8:
      The lawe of the lord is without wem, and conuertith soulis : the witnessyng of the lord is feithful, and gyueth wisdom to litle children.
    • 1934, Ezra Pound, ABC of reading, page 39:
      That "whole art" consisted in putting together about six strophes of poesy so that the words and the tune should be welded together without joint and without wem.
    • 1936, Blanche Mary Kelly, The Well of English:
      […] but it is a perfect illustration of the vision which haunted Blake all his days,—the vision of Paradise, an earthly Paradise in which there is neither wem nor wrinkle, which basks in the radiance of its own innocence.

Derived terms

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

Pronoun

wem

  1. (interrogative) dative of wer, (to) whom (indirect object).

Further reading

  • “wem” in Duden online
  • “wem” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia