Word: worm Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *wurmiz Proto-West Germanic *wurmi Old English wyrm Middle English worm English worm From Middle English werm, wirm, worm, worme, wrim, wurm, wyrm, wyrme, from Old English weorm, wurm, wyrm, from Proto-West Germanic *wurmi, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (“worm; snake”), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis (“worm; larva”), possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English. (computing): First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider. Cognates Germanic cognates include North Frisian wörem, wörm, Würem (“worm”), Saterland Frisian Wurm, Wúurm (“worm”), West Frisian wjirm (“worm”), Alemannic German Wüüre (“worm”), Cimbrian bórm (“worm”), burm (“snake”), Dutch worm, wurm (“worm”), German Gewürm (“vermin”), Wurm (“worm”), Low German Worm (“worm”), Luxembourgish Wuerm (“worm”), Mòcheno burm (“snake”), Vilamovian vūəm, wüm (“worm”), Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem, “worm”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish orm (“worm”), Faroese and Icelandic ormur (“worm”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“worm”), yrme, yrmle (“female snake with offspring”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌼𐍃 (waurms, “snake”), Kildin Sami уррьм (urr’m, “gadfly larva”), Skolt Sami uʹrmm (“gadfly larva”). Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμοξ (rhómox), ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”). Pronunciation: /wɜːm/, /wɝm/ 1. A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm. Example: ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’ 2. More loosely, any of various tubular invertebrates resembling annelids but not closely related to them, such as velvet worms, acorn worms, flatworms, or roundworms. See Appendix:English worms. Example: Leaning that I might eat, I stretched and clung Over the shapeless depth in which those corpses hung. A woman’s shape, now lank and cold and blue, The dwelling of the many-coloured worm, Hung there […] 3. Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar. Labels: archaic, poetic Example: A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice. Example: 1561, Geneva Bible, Acts 28:3-4, And when Paul had gathered a nomber of stickes, & laid them on the fyre, there came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. Now when the Barbarians sawe the worme hang on his hand, they said among them selues This man surely is a murtherer, whome, thogh he hathe escaped the sea, yet Vengeance hathe not suffred to liue. 4. Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar. Labels: archaic, broadly, informal, poetic Example: Those little wriggling worms are the larvae of flies who laid eggs here. 5. A dragon, today especially Germanic dragon, more often of the serpentine or wingless type, for example sea serpent, but also any kind of dragon. Labels: archaic, poetic Example: a. 1398, John Trevisa, transl. Bartholomeus Anglicus as De Proprietatibus Rerum (MS BL Add. 27944), Vol. I, p. 628: Example: In the Cross of Cong (A.D. 1123) the Celtic inter-laced patterns are found side by side with the "worm-dragon" ornament .. 6. A dragon, today especially Germanic dragon, more often of the serpentine or wingless type, for example sea serpent, but also any kind of dragon. Labels: archaic, poetic 7. A contemptible or devious being. Example: Don't try to run away, you little worm! Example: But I am a worme, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 8. A self-replicating program that propagates through a network, differing from a virus in usually lacking any destructive effects. Example: When Trevor opened his email, a worm spread to 100 people in his address book. 9. A graphical representation of the total runs scored across a number of overs. 10. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. Example: If the Worms of the Nut or Spindle be worn, the Spindle must be examin'd by the Smith 11. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. 12. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. 13. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. 14. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. 15. Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw. Example: Holonyms: worm drive, worm and wheel 16. An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one’s mind with remorse. Labels: figuratively Example: The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul! 17. A strip of linked tiles sharing parallel edges in a tiling. 18. The lytta. 19. A dance, or dance move, in which the dancer lies on the floor and undulates the body horizontally thereby moving forwards.