English Explanatory Dictionary

wem

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A spot, stain, or mark; (by extension) a (moral) blemish or fault.
name
  1. A small market town and civil parish with a town council in north Shropshire, England (OS grid ref SJ5129).

Pronunciation

/wɛm/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wem.wav

Word forms

wem wems weam weem wame wan

Etymology

From Middle English wem, wemme, from Old English womm (“stain, spot”), from Proto-Germanic *wammaz (“stain, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *wemh₁- (“to spew, vomit”). Cognate with Icelandic vamm (“loss, damage”), Latin vomō (“to vomit”, verb) (whence English vomit), Ancient Greek ἐμέω (eméō, “to spew”) (English emesis), Lithuanian vémti (“to vomit”), Sanskrit वमति (vamati, “to vomit”). The sense development would be "vomit" > "stain", "fault".

Derived words

Wem Rural
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