ware

Meanings

Adjective

• Aware.
• Wary; cautious.

Noun

• The state of being aware; heed.
• Goods or a type of goods offered for sale or use.
• See wares.
• Pottery or metal goods.
• A style or genre of artifact.
• Crockery.
• Seaweed.

Verb

• To be ware or mindful of something.
• To protect or guard (especially oneself); to be on guard, be wary.
• To wear, or veer.
• were.

Origin

• From Middle English ware, war, from Old English wær, from Proto-West Germanic *war, from Proto-Germanic *waraz.
• From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic *waru, from Proto-Germanic *warō as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European *wer-, whence also ward. Cognate with Dutch waar and Swedish vara, with the same meaning.
• From Middle English waren, from Old English warian, from Proto-West Germanic *warōn, from Proto-Germanic *warōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian woarje.
• From Middle English ware, wore (as in sewor, from Old English sǣwār), from Old English wār ("seaweed"), ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wīraz; compare wire. Cognate with Dutch wier ("seaweed"), Middle Dutch wier ("seaweed").