Thursday, January 28, 2010

Man, in my words

wir : man

The Illunse word for man (adult male human) is wir. Wir is a last name. In German wir means we. In Old English wír means wire, metal thread. Wir is the name of a city in Poland.

This word is a mixture of the Old English word for man which is wer (male being; man; husband; hero), and the Latin word for man which is vir (man; husband; hero; person of courage, honor, and nobility).

The Old English word wer may seem odd, but it's part of the root of our word werewolf. In Old English the word werwulf literally means man-wolf.

Initially, I considered making this word ver, instead of wir. But I saw that ver means worm in French, a somewhat unpleasant meaning in a widely spoken language, and so I scratched that idea.

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