How the heck to you pronounce this?!

[The It's Man]

(...) Interestingly enough, the Oxford English Dictionary (despite having cool words like "dwerg," an obsolete word for dwarf,) (...)

"Dwerg" is not obsolete, it's Dutch

 

[333 Dave]

"Dwerg" is not obsolete, it's Dutch

Maybe its not obsolete in Dutch, but we're talking about the Oxford English Dictionary.

 

[kenjib]

I've always heard it as "DWO-mur"...

Toss in another vote for DWO-mur. It's not at www.m-w.com nor www.dictionary.com either. Where did this word come from?

 

[rounser]

Where did this word come from?

It looks strongly like ye olde english to me. The extra 'e' in dweomercraeft is a bit of a smoking gun, so to speak. It looks like dweomer is a word that hasn't been updated for quite a while, and so perhaps escaped modern spelling conventions.

Outside of fantasy, I haven't heard it used - but fantasy's getting popular enough that those dictionaries will probably have to dust off the word and define it again, eventually.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

It would be very interesting to see where this word actually came from...perhaps Mr. Gygax himself would know...? I know I've never seen it in any dictionaries.

 

[Vaxalon]

We use the Germanic pronunciation of "oe" as an "O" with an umlaut... which means you make your mouth in an "O" shape but pronounce an "E". It comes out sounding like "Dway-mer."

Sort of.

 

[rounser]

From http://www.focusresearch.com/gregor/wow.html :

An obscure word meaning magic.


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From The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Volume 1 (A-O); 18th Printing, 1979; Library of Congress catalog number 76-188038:

Dweomercraeft. Obs. [f. O.E. *dwimer, *dweomer, in zedwimer, zedwomer, illusion, sourcery, necromancy, zedwinere, juggler, sourcerer + craeft, CRAFT.] Juggler, magic art.

c.1205 LAY. 30634 And Pelux hit wiste anan purh his dweomer-craeften.

Related: Dweomerlayk = Demerlayk.

[2000-01-28]


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From The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology; T.F. Hoad; ISBN 0-19-283098-8 (pbk).

Dwarf comes from the old English word dweorg/dweorgh/dwerg.

[2000-01-26]


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The stem 'werg-' means 'to do'. (Words and Rules, page 68).


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The perlopentut (Perl open tutorial) document by Tom Christiansen uses the term 'dweomer'.


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'Dweomer' also occurs in some fantasy literature and role playing games.


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From The Word Lover's Dictionary; Citadel Press, Josefa Heifetz, 1997; ISBN 0-8065-1720-4.

dwergma: "echo". Of Norse origin. Means Dwarf Language. Supposedly dwarves live in the rocks and are the source of the echoes

[2000-01-26]


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[UPDATE 2001-10-01] Tolkein uses 'Dwimmerlaik' as a contemptuous title for the lord of the Nazgul. This appears to be a way of saying 'necromancer', given gedwimer = sorcery and lic = corpse.

 

[rounser]

It seems to me - given the suggested roots of the word - that Dweomercraefter would be a particularly appropriate title for a dwarven wizard or sorceror.

 

[Henry@home]

A-HA! I knew those short little buggers were hiding their mages somewhere for all these years!

I like the word - I think I will start using it in my games for Dwarven Magi.

It says "old english" - but does anyone know if there are any "analog" words for it in Gaelic or Welsh?

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Thanks rounser--very imformative! Interesting to know a bit more about where stuff comes from, and the history behind it. THough i'll be the first to admit that i'm a total history geek...lol