weorþan

• wearþan — Anglian
• weorðan — edh spelling
• wurþan — Late West Saxon

From Proto-West Germanic *werþan, from Proto-Germanic *werþaną (“to become”), from Proto-Indo-European *wértti (“to be turning”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈwe͜or.θɑn/, [ˈwe͜orˠ.ðɑn]

weorþan

1. to become
   • 10th century, Exeter Book Riddle 5‎^[1]:

     …ac mē eċġa dolg ēacen weorðað þurh dēaðsleġe dagum and nihtum.

     …but for me wounds of edges become widened through deathblows by days and nights.

2. (auxiliary) to be (used to form the passive voice)
   • c. 992, Ælfric, "Saint Maur, Abbot"

     Hē ārās þā ġesund, swelċe of slǣpe āwreaht, and begann tō wundrienne hū hē wurde þæder ġebrōht.

     Then he got up safe and sound, as if woken from sleep, and began to wonder how he got there. (Lit. How he was brought there)

3. to happen, come to pass
   • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

     An. DLXXXV Hēr wearþ on Brytene blōdi rēn ⁊ meolc and butere wurdon ġewend to blōde.

     Year 685 In this year there was bloody rain in Britain and milk and butter were turned into blood.

• Middle English: werthen
  • Scots: worth (dated)
  • English: worth, word (dialectal)

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “weorþan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.