worth

pronunciation

How to pronounce worth in British English: UK [wɜːθ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce worth in American English: US [wɜːrθ] word us audio image

Noun:

an indefinite quantity of something having a specified value
the quality that renders something desirable or valuable or useful

Word Origin

worth: worth: [OE] Worth is a general Germanic adjective, with relatives in German wert, Dutch waard, Swedish värd, and Danish værd (worth ‘value’ [OE] is a noun use of the adjective). Its ultimate ancestry is uncertain, although it has been speculated that it may go back to the Indo- European base *wer- ‘turn’, which also produced Latin vertere (source of English convert, version, etc), German werden ‘become’, and the now obsolete English verb worth ‘become’, not to mention English weird and possibly worm. Derived from worth are worship and worthy [13].=> worship, worthy

worth (adj.): Old English weorþ "significant, valuable, of value; valued, appreciated, highly thought-of, deserving, meriting; honorable, noble, of high rank; suitable for, proper, fit, capable," from Proto-Germanic *werthaz "toward, opposite," hence "equivalent, worth" (cognates: Old Frisian werth, Old Norse verðr, Dutch waard, Old High German werd, German wert, Gothic wairþs "worth, worthy"), perhaps a derivative of PIE *wert- "to turn, wind," from root *wer- (3) "to turn, bend" (see versus). Probably related to weird. Old Church Slavonic vredu, Lithuanian vertas "worth" are Germanic loan-words. From c. 1200 as "equivalent to, of the value of, valued at; having importance equal to; equal in power to."

worth (v.): "to come to be," now chiefly, if not solely, in the archaic expression woe worth the day, present subjunctive of Old English weorðan "to become, be, to befall," from Proto-Germanic *werthan "to become" (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Dutch werthan, Old Norse verða, Old Frisian wertha, Old High German werdan, German werden, Gothic wairþan "to become"), literally "to turn into," from Proto-Germanic *werthaz "toward, opposite," perhaps a derivative of PIE *wert- "to turn, wind," from root *wer- (3) "to turn, bend" (see versus).

worth (n.): Old English weorþ "value, price, price paid; worth, worthiness, merit; equivalent value amount, monetary value," from worth (adj.). From c. 1200 as "excellence, nobility."

adj.