| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
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| ENTRY: | wes-1 |
| DEFINITION: | To live, dwell, pass the night, with derivatives meaning “to be.” Oldest form * 2wes-. 1. O-grade (perfect tense) form *wos-. was, from Old English wæs, was, from Germanic *was-. 2. Lengthened-grade form *w s-. were, from Old English w re (subjunctive), wron (plural), were, from Germanic *wz-. 3. wassail, from Old Norse vesa, vera, to be, from Germanic *wesan. 4. Perhaps suffixed form *wes-t -. Vesta, from Latin Vesta, household goddess. 5. Possibly suffixed variant form *was-tu-. astute, from Latin astus, skill, craft (practiced in a town), from Greek astu, town (< “place where one dwells”). 6. Suffixed form *wes-eno-. divan, from Old Persian vahanam, house. (Pokorny 1.  es- 1170.) |
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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