adj., n.
'worse'
(Modern English war, waur)Usually derived from ON verri (with the vocalism of ME worre probably to be explained as owing to the influence of ME wors, as in TGD), from a variant PGmc *werzizōn with Verner's Law affecting the first /s/. The NGmc form of the comparative thus contrasts with the OE, viz. OE wiersa, wyrsa (etc.) from a PGmc *wersizōn (cp. also OS wirsa, OHG wirsiro, Go waírsiza). Yet though the OE comparative is always attested as w-rs-, there are a number of instances of the superlative in w-rr- (esp. wyrrest) beside regular w-rs- (similarly cp. in OS wirrista next to wirsisto and in OFris extending to the comp. wirra, werra). It is possible to explain some or all of these variants as descendants of the PGmc *werziz- type (thus Sturtevant 1931: 294), and in that case ME werre, worre could be native survivals from the same source. Whatever the source of the OE wyrrest type, however, it was apparently a very common variant, and one in which the /s/ of -st must be understood as belonging to the superl. ending -st rather than the stem. On the basis of a superl. wyrr-est, it would be natural for some speakers to re-form their comparative as *wyrra, producing a pair of comp. : superl. variants of the type wyrsa : wyrst vs. *wyrra : wyrrest. With or without an additional stimulus from ON verri, it would account for these ME variants of the comp., both of which pair exactly with corresponding forms of the superl. (viz. werre : werst, worre : worst), as well as the vocalism of worre.
PGmc Ancestor
*werziz-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
verri 'worse'
(ONP verri (adj. compar.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far verri, Icel verri, Norw verre, Dan værre, Sw värre
OE Cognate
wiersa, wyrsa 'worse'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC2ac
Other than Gaw, wor- variants are recorded in MED only from a1450 Ben.Rule(2) (Vsp A.25) and a1400 Cursor (Frf 14). See further LALME dot maps 595 (‘wor-’ type) and 597 (‘-r(e)’ type, where the few occurrences are confined to the North and N/EM).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 1588, 1591; Cl 719