PERMANENT SOURCE RECORD
ALL SOURCES ↗BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-word
SOURCE
RECORD.
One work. Every claim that depends on it. No citation without a consequence you can inspect.
12 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.
This count excludes duplicate dossier-path citations. Open the claims below to see exactly how the source is used.
historical dictionarymw-word
Word — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use
- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- DOI
- Not recorded
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- EXTERNAL RECORD
- OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
011
CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS
RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
RANK 96GRADE Acontext
Word and verb are cousins, not a borrowing pair.
English word descends through Germanic *wurdam and zero-grade *wr-dho-. English verb arrives through French from Latin verbum and the full-grade *wer-dho- branch. They meet only at reconstructed *werh1- “speak.”
*werh₁-
*werh₁- → *wr̥-dho- → *wurdam → word → word → word
Etymology: Old English; akin to Latin verbumConfirms inherited English ancestry and comparative, not donor, status for Latin.
word dossier ↗truth record ↗86UNVEILING
022
SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
resolvedsupportsestablished
Was English word borrowed from Latin verbum?
No. English word is inherited through Old English and Germanic; Latin verbum is an akin or cognate branch under the shared speaking root, not the donor.
Etymology: Old English; akin to Latin verbumDistinguishes inherited ancestry from an akin Latin form.
resolvedcontextestablished
Is *werh1- an attested first human word?
No. The asterisk marks a comparative reconstruction, and the reviewed source stops at the speaking root rather than identifying any spoken first word.
Etymology labels Latin, Greek, and Hittite forms as akinShows comparison rather than a claim about primordial speech.
034
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS
EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
EDGE 624supportsestablished
word → word
Present-Day English → Middle English · continuation
- SOUND
- Modern English preserves the inherited spelling word while pronunciation continues the history of English vowel and rhotic systems.
- MEANING
- The core linguistic-unit sense continues alongside utterance, promise, news, command, and technical extensions.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors
Word History and current definitionsSupplies the inherited English form, current semantic range, and pre-twelfth-century horizon.
EDGE 625supportsestablished
word → word
Middle English → Old English · continuation
- SOUND
- Middle English word continues Old English word with no donor-language substitution.
- MEANING
- Word, utterance, and expression remain central.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors
Etymology: Middle English from Old EnglishExplicitly supplies the English continuity.
EDGE 626contextestablished
word → *wurdam
Old English → Proto-Germanic · inheritance
- SOUND
- Old English word continues reconstructed Germanic *wurdam through inherited West Germanic development.
- MEANING
- Something spoken remains a word or utterance.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors
Old High German wort comparisonProvides an independent Germanic cognate anchor.
EDGE 634contextestablished
verbum → *wer-dho-
Latin → Proto-Indo-European · inheritance
- SOUND
- The reconstructed *wer-dho- formation develops into Latin verbum; the graph records the published comparison without inventing intermediate spellings.
- MEANING
- A formation meaning something spoken becomes Latin word, utterance, and later grammatical verb.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors
Latin verbum listed as akin to English wordIndependently connects the Latin and Germanic branches as cognates.
041
LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS
WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE
wordSOURCE-REPORTED
word
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for word
OPEN WITNESS 151 ↗053
COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE
COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES
061
GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS
JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
stage 3supports
England
Supplies the Old English ancestry and source-reported temporal horizon.
Etymology and First Known Use: before 12th century · regional070
NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE
No non-genealogical context link currently cites this source.
082
WORD-FAMILY REUSE
DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE
4 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.