wermode

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wermot, warmot, weremod, wormode, wormote, wormet, wrmod, wurmode, woormood, wermod, wormod
• (influenced by worm + wode) wyrmwode, wormwode, wormewode, wermwod, wormwod, wurmewod

Etymology

From Old English wermōd, wormōd, from Proto-West Germanic *warjamōdā. Some forms remodelled on the basis of worm + wode.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɛrmoːd/, /ˈwɛrmɔd/, /ˈwurmɔd/

Noun

wermode (uncountable)

1. wormwood (Artemisia absinthium or other related plants)
2. Something that induces bitterness or unlikeability.
3. (biblical) Wormwood (object in the Book of Revelation)
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[1], published c. 1410, Apocalips 8:10-11, page 120r, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     And þe þꝛidde aungel trumpide .· ⁊ a greet ſterre bꝛennynge as a litil bꝛond felde fro heuene ⁊ it felde in to þe þꝛidde part of floodis .· ⁊ in to þe wellis of watris ⁊ þe name of þe ſterre is ſeid wermod ⁊ þe þꝛidde part of watris .· was maad in to wermod ⁊ manye men weren deed of þe watris .· for þo weren maad bittir

     And the third angel blew his trumpet, then a great star burning like a little torch fell from heaven; it fell upon a third of [the world's] rivers and water sources. The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the [world's] water was turned into wormwood; many people died from that water because it'd been made bitter.

Descendants

• English: wormwood (< wormwode)
• Scots: wormit (< wormet)
• → Irish: mormónta

References

• “wermọ̄̆d(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-02.
• “wǒrm-wọ̄de, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-02.