*andaswarō

Runic: ᚨᚾᛞᚨᛊᚹᚨᚱᛟ Pronunciation: /ˈɑn.dɑ.ˌswɑ.rɔː/

noun · feminine · ō-stem

Meanings

answer, reply; a statement made in response

Etymology

From *anda- + *swarō, literally ‘counter-statement; statement in reply’. Barðdal & Eythórsson (2020: 212) argue that the Germanic meaning ‘answer’ preceded ‘swear (an oath)’, the latter developing from ‘answer before a court of justice’. Kroonen (2013: s.v. *swar(j)an-) reconstructs the noun as *swaro- but regards the deeper Indo-European etymology of the *swar- family as uncertain. Rix and colleagues (2001: 613) relate it to PIE *swer-, with earlier Germanic ‘speak, sound’. The feminine ō-stem is directly supported by Old English andswaru; Old Norse (and-)svar represents a parallel neuter formation *swarą (Seebold 1970: 481).

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.andaswarōandaswarôz
Acc.andaswarǭandaswarōz
Gen.andaswarōzandaswarǫ̂
Dat.andaswarōiandaswarōmaz
Inst.andaswarōandaswarōmiz
Voc.andaswarōandaswarôz

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Descendants

  • *andaswaru (Proto-West Germanic)
    • andswaru, andsware (Old English)
      • andsware, answere, answar, answer (Middle English)
        • answer (English)
        • answere, answer (Scots)
  • *andaswaru (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ondswer, ondsere, ondser (Old Frisian)
    • andswar, andswōr, antswōr (Old Saxon)
  • andsvar, annsvar (Old Norse)
    • ansvar (Danish)
    • andsvar (Faroese)
    • andsvar, ans (Icelandic)
    • ansvar (Norwegian)
  • andsvar, annsvar (Old Norse)
    • andsvar (Old Swedish)
      • ansvar (Swedish)

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