w-ro- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

Appendix I

Indo-European Roots

ENTRY:	w-ro-
DEFINITION:	Man. Contracted from wi-ro-, derivative of wei-. Derivatives include werewolf, world,* and virtuoso. 1a. werewolf, wergeld, from Old English wer, man; b. (i) world, from Old English weorold, world; (ii) Weltanschauung, Weltschmerz, from Old High German weralt, world. Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic compound wer-ald-, “life or age of man” (-ald-, age; see al-²); c. loup-garou, from Old French garoul, werewolf, from Frankish wer-wulf, “man-wolf” (wulf, wolf; see wk^wo-). Both a and b from Germanic weraz, from shortened form wiraz. 2. virago, virile, virtue, virtuosa, virtuoso; decemvir, decurion, duumvir, triumvir, from Latin vir, man. 3. curia, from Latin cria, curia, court, possibly from co-vir-ia, “men together” (co-, together; see kom). (Pokorny ro-s 1177.)


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.