wem

Definition

A spot, stain, or mark; (by extension) a (moral) blemish or fault.

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".

Example Sentences

• "Smock, climbe a-pace, that I maie see my ioyes; / Oh heauen and paradize are all but toyes / Compar'd with this sight I now behould, / Which well might keepe a man from being olde. / A prettie rysing wombe without a weame / That shone as bright as anie siluer streame ..."
• ""It is even so," he added, as he gazed on the Sub-Prior with astonishment; "neither wem nor wound — not so much as a rent in his frock!""
• "The lawe of the lord is without wem, and conuertith soulis : the witnessyng of the lord is feithful, and gyueth wisdom to litle children."