An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Wort

by Friedrich Kluge

Wort, neuter, ‘word, term, expression,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German wort, masculine; corresponding to Gothic waúrd, Old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, and English word, Dutch woord. The common Teutonic wordo, ‘word,’ based on Aryan wṛdho-, is equivalent to Latin verbum (Latin b for Aryan dh, as in Bart, rot), Prussian wirds, ‘word,’ and Lithuanian vardas, ‘name.’ Wort has with lees reason been regarded as an old participle wr-tó- (for the suffix compare satt and traut), and derived from the root wer (wrê), appearing in Greek ῥήτωρ, ‘orator,’ ῥήτρα, ‘saying,’ ἐρέω, ‘to ask,’ and with which Old Irish breth, ‘sentence,’ based on Aryan wṛto-, is connected.