English
wurst
Wurst comes from German Wurst ‘sausage, wurst’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *wursti ‘something turned or twisted’.
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wursti‘something turned or twisted’reconstructed
- Old High Germanc. 750–1050wurst
- Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350wurst
- Germanc. 1650–presentWurst‘sausage, wurst’
- Englishearliest quotation 1973wurst
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wursti‘something turned or twisted’reconstructed
- Old High Germanc. 750–1050wurst
- Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350wurst
- Germanc. 1650–presentWurst‘sausage, wurst’
- Englishearliest quotation 1973wurst
Earliest quotation: 1973, Sammy Tippit, With God in Germany: “We had a long walk ahead to Stuttgart. We…”
first attested First attested in 1890 (as stated in the etymology)
The story
First attested in 1890. Unrelated to worsted (‘type of yarn’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, to rotate, spin’
word, university, worth, version, weird, conversation, ridiculous, universe, divorce, vertical, diversity, versus, diverse, verse, advertisement, convertible, vortex, advert, versatile, divert, revert, ridicule, pervert, vertex, adversity, vertigo, avert, diversification, vert, derision, verso, deride, derisive, perversity, 73 more
Today it means
noun A German- or Austrian-style sausage.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *wursti / wurst