Etymology
1. late O.E. (c.1050),
wyrre, werre, from O.N.Fr.
werre "war" (Fr.
guerre), from Frank.
*werra, from P.Gmc.
*werso (cf. O.S.
werran, O.H.G.
werran, Ger.
verwirren "to confuse, perplex"). Cognates suggest the original sense was "to bring into confusion." There was no common Gmc. word for "war" at the dawn of historical times. O.E. had many poetic words for "war" (
guð, heaðo, hild, wig, all common in personal names), but the usual one to translate L.
bellum was
gewin "struggle, strife" (related to win). Sp., Port., It.
guerra are from the same source; Romanic peoples turned to Gmc. for a word to avoid L.
bellum because its form tended to merge with
bello- "beautiful." The verb meaning "to make war on" is recorded from 1154. First record of
war time is 1387.
Warpath (1775) is from N.Amer. Ind., as are
war-whoop (1761),
war-paint (1826),
war-path (1775), and
war-dance (1757).
War crime first attested 1906.
War chest is attested from 1901; now usually fig.
War games translates Ger.
Kriegspiel (see kriegspiel).
2. Inherited from Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre /wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French guerre /werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werʀu (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period.
3. Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also related to Old Saxon werran (“to confuse, perplex”), Dutch war (“confusion, disarray”), West Frisian war (“struggle, resistance, defense, effort, exertion, activity”),
4. Old English wyrsa, wiersa (“worse”), Old Norse verri (“worse, orig. confounded, mixed up”), Italian guerra (“war”). There may be a connection with worse and wurst. See: French '
guerre', German, old spelling '
verwirren', Old Saxon '
werran'.