worm
pronunciation
How to pronounce worm in British English:
UK [wɜːm]
How to pronounce worm in American English:
US [wɜːrm]
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- Noun:
- any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied animals especially of the phyla Annelida and Chaetognatha and Nematoda and Nemertea and Platyhelminthes; also many insect larvae
- a person who has a nasty or unethical character undeserving of respect
- a software program capable of reproducing itself that can spread from one computer to the next over a network
- screw thread on a gear with the teeth of a worm wheel or rack
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- Verb:
- to move in a twisting or contorted motion, (especially when struggling)
Word Origin
- worm
- worm: [OE] The ancestral meaning of worm appears to be ‘snake’; its application to smaller limbless creatures is a secondary development. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *wurmiz, *wurmaz, which also produced German wurm, Dutch worm, and Danish orm ‘worm’ and Swedish orm ‘snake’. And this in turn went back to Indo-European *wrmi-, *wrmo- (source also of Latin vermis, from which English gets vermilion and vermin), a possible derivative of the base *wer- ‘turn, twist’ (source of English convert, reverse, etc) – in which case the worm would be etymologically the ‘twisting’ or ‘winding’ creature.=> vermilion, vermin
- worm (n.)
- Old English wurm, variant of wyrm "serpent, snake, dragon, reptile," also in later Old English "earthworm," from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German, German wurm, Old Frisian and Dutch worm, Old Norse ormr, Gothic waurms "serpent, worm"), from PIE *wrmi- "worm" (cognates: Greek rhomos, Latin vermis "worm," Old Russian vermie "insects," Lithuanian varmas "insect, gnat"), probably from root *wer- (3) "turn" (see versus). The ancient category of these was much more extensive than the modern, scientific, one and included serpents, scorpions, maggots, and the supposed causes of certain diseases. For substitution of -o- for -u-, see come. As an insult meaning "abject, miserable person" it dates from Old English. Worms "any disease arising from the presence of parasitic worms" is from late Old English. Can of worms figurative for "difficult problem" is from 1951, from the literal can of worms a fisherman might bring with him, on the image of something all tangled up.
- worm (v.)
- "to move like a worm," c. 1600, from worm (n.). In figurative senses attested from 1620s, suggesting patient, sinuous progress. Meaning "to free from worms" is from 1620s. Related: Wormed; worming.
Example
- 1. But the worm also highlights the limitations of cyber-attacks .
- 2. He 's digging for something , maybe a worm .
- 3. Ye have made your way from the worm to man , and much within you is still worm .
- 4. The worm causes liver damage that the body 's natural mechanisms must repair .
- 5. The conficker worm was named as the biggest worm threat for enterprises .