wether

See also: weþer

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛðɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛðə/
• Rhymes: -ɛðə(ɹ)
• Homophones: weather, whether (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English wether, wethir, wedyr, from Old English weþer (“a wether, ram”), from Proto-West Germanic *weþru, from Proto-Germanic *weþruz (“wether”), from Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“year”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots weddir, woddir, wadder (“wether”), Dutch weder, weer (“wether”), German Widder (“wether, ram”), Norwegian Bokmål vær (“ram”), Norwegian Nynorsk vêr (“ram”), Swedish vädur (“wether, ram”), Icelandic veður (“wether, ram”), Latin vitulus (“calf”).

Alternative forms

• wedder (dialectal)

Noun

wether (plural wethers)

1. A castrated goat.
2. A castrated ram.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 179, column 1:

     I am a tainted Weather of the flocke, / Meeteſt for death, the weakeſt kinde of fruite

Derived terms

• bellwether

Translations

castrated goat

• Afar: utkaalíyta
• Bulgarian: скопен козел (skopen kozel)
• Czech: hňup (cs)
• Danish: bede (da) c
• Dutch: weer (nl) m
• Esperanto: kastrita virkapro (eo), eksvirkapro, kapruko (eo)
• Finnish: salvupukki
• Galician: castrón (gl) m
• German: Mönch (de) m, kastrierter Ziegenbock (de) m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἴξᾰλος m (íxalos)

• Hausa: taurḕ
• Kazakh: серке (serke)
• Latin: vervex m
• Macedonian: брав m (brav)
• Mandinka: baaseenoo
• Mwaghavul: nkoor
• Navajo: tłʼízí choʼádinii
• Portuguese: castrão (pt) m
• Scottish Gaelic: cull-bhoc m, eibhreannach m, laos-boc m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: брав m

  Roman: brav (sh) m

• Spanish: castrón m, mardal m
• Swedish: hammel (sv), kastrerad bagge
• Tigrinya: ሶር (sor)
• Tocharian B: alāᵤ
• Turkish: iğdiş teke, burulmuş teke
• Tuvan: серге (serge)
• Volapük: hokapar (vo)

castrated ram

• Bulgarian: скопен овен (skopen oven)
• Catalan: moltó (ca) m
• Czech: skopec (cs) m
• Danish: bede (da) c
• Dutch: hamel (nl) m
• Esperanto: kastrita virŝafo, ŝafuko (eo)
• Faroese: geldingur m
• Finnish: oinas (fi)
• Friulian: monton
• Galician: roxelo (gl) m
• German: Hammel (de) m, Schöps (de) m
• Hungarian: ürü (hu)
• Irish: molt m
• Italian: montone (it) m
• Kazakh: ісек (ısek)
• Latin: vervex
• Manx: mohlt m, mohltin m
• Maori: hipi tame raho-poka, wēta
• Polabian: sťüp
• Polish: skop (pl) m
• Portuguese: carneiro castrado m
• Romanian: batal (ro) m
• Romansch: tschanc m, botsch chastrà m
• Russian: валу́х (ru) m (valúx)
• Scottish Gaelic: mult m
• Spanish: carnero castrado m, castrón m
• Swedish: hammel (sv) c
• Turkish: iğdiş koç, burulmuş koç
• Tuvan: ирт (irt)
• Volapük: hojip (vo)
• Welsh: mollt(yn) m, gwedder m (South)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} skapas m

Verb

wether (third-person singular simple present wethers, present participle wethering, simple past and past participle wethered)

1. (transitive) To castrate a male sheep or goat.

Translations

to castrate a male sheep or goat

• Finnish: kuohita (fi), salvaa (fi)
• Turkish: iğdiş etmek (tr), burmak (tr), kısırlaştırmak, taşak burmak

Etymology 2

Noun

wether

1. Archaic spelling of weather.
   • 1527, George Joye, The storie of my state after the bishop had receyued the pryours letters‎^[1]:

     There was a great fyer in the chamber, the wether was colde, and I saw now and then a Bishop come out;

     cited after Samuel Roffey Maitland, 1866, p. 8

Anagrams

• reweth