war

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An armed fight between countries or large groups, usually involving military forces.

   The country was at war for nearly a decade.

2. 2
   noun

   A long, determined struggle or campaign against something harmful.

   The government launched a war on poverty.

3. 3
   noun

   A strong competition between rival groups or businesses.

   The supermarkets are in a price war.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

War was borrowed near the end of the Old English period from Old French guerre. The French word was itself Germanic in origin and originally meant “confusion” or “discord”; in English it supplied a term for organized armed conflict where earlier Germanic vocabulary had chiefly expressed strife or struggle.

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre /wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French guerre /werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werru (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period. Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also…

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