wearish
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English warssh, werisch, werische, werish, werissh, werssh, werysshe, of unknown origin; compare Modern English dialectal wairsh and Early Modern English wersh; perhaps related to Middle English wery (modern weary).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
wearish (comparative more wearish, superlative most wearish)
- (obsolete) Tasteless, having a sickly flavour; insipid.
- (obsolete or dialectal) Sickly, wizened, feeble.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Who was to weet a wretched wearish elfe, / With hollow eyes and rawbone cheekes forspent […].
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:, New York Review Books, 2001, p.16:
- Democritus, as he is described by Hippocrates and Laertius, was a little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in his latter days, and much given to solitariness […].
Derived terms[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ “wē̆rish, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007: “Origin unknown: cp. MnE dial. (chiefly Northern) wairsh & EMnE wersh; perh. related to ME wẹ̄rī adj.”