Etymograph

English

worth

Worth comes from Old English weorþ ‘worth, deserving’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *werþaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*werþaz1‘worthy’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*werþ1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150weorþ1‘worth’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500worth1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1593worth1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English worth
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […]: “VVhat bee they men of any worth or no?…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*werþazWiktionary, English worth‘worthy’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*werþWiktionary, English worthreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150weorþWiktionary, English worth‘worth’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500worthWiktionary, English worth
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1593worthWiktionary, English worth. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […]: “VVhat bee they men of any worth or no?…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with worth, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’

  • university ← universite ← université ← universitei ← universitas
  • version ← versiō ← vertō ← *wertō
  • weird ← werde ← wyrd ← *wurdi ← *wurdiz
  • conversation ← conversacioun ← conversacion ← conversātiōnem ← conversātiō
  • universe ← univers ← ūniversus ← versus ← vorsus
  • word ← worth ← worthen ← weorþan ← *werþan
  • ridiculous ← rīdiculus ← rīdeō
  • diversity ← diversite ← diversité ← dīversitās ← dīversus
  • versus ← vertō ← *wertō
  • diverse ← divers ← divers ← dīversus ← dīvertō
  • verse ← vers ← fers ← versus ← vertō
  • divorce ← dīvortium ← dīvertere ← vertō ← *wertō

94 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “worth”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *werþaz / worth