wer

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

wer^¹

Where it comes from

From Middle English wer, were, from Old English wer (“man”), from Proto-West Germanic *wer, from Proto-Germanic *weraz, from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós (“man, freeman”).

Cognate with Middle High German wër (“man”), Swedish värbror (“brother-in-law”), Norwegian verfader (“father-in-law”), Latin vir (“man, husband”), Old Irish fer, Middle Welsh gwr. The original meaning of “man” is now preserved only in compounds like werewolf, were wolf (“man-wolf”) and wergeld, were gild (“man gold (payment)”).

noun wers · were

A man; a male; a husband. […]the character of a horseman was inseparable connected with the knight—the military attendant of the baron, who was himself nothing more than the Wer, or Man, of the king—even the armiger, […]
historical, obsolete A fine for slaying a man; wergeld. Under the system of money compensation, the kindred of the slain must demand payment of the wer, or prosecute the feud. They had the right to the wer when paid, and must by oath release the slayer and his kindred from the feud.

wer^²

verb

pronunciation spelling Eye dialect spelling of were

WER^³

noun

abbreviation, initialism Initialism of word error rate

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"wer." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/wer. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

wer. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/wer

Chicago

"wer." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/wer.

BibTeX

@misc{wer_2026,
  title = {wer},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/wer},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}

wer