Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Answer in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels answer as verb. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913verb
Answer

[OE. andswerien, AS. andswerian, andswarian, to answer, fr. andswaru, n., answer. See Answer, n.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordanswer
Part of speechverb
Historical etymology[OE. andswerien, AS. andswerian, andswarian, to answer, fr. andswaru, n., answer. See Answer, n.]
Selected historical definitionTo speak in defense against; to reply to in defense; as, to answer a charge; to answer an accusation.
Signed record IDwebster1913-answer-verb-23612caf6d2f
Source locatorCIDE.A, paragraph 8663; Gutenberg eBook 660
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 660Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "answer" is labeled verb. Its etymology is recorded as: "[OE. andswerien, AS. andswerian, andswarian, to answer, fr. andswaru, n., answer. See Answer, n.]" The selected historical definition says: "To speak in defense against; to reply to in defense; as, to answer a charge; to answer an accusation."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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