different between worth vs virtue

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /w??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)?, -?(?)?

Etymology 1

From Middle English worth, from Old English weorþ, from Proto-Germanic *werþaz (“worthy, valuable”); from Proto-Indo-European *wert-.

Cognate with Dutch waard (adjective), Low German weert (adjective), German wert, Wert, Swedish värd, Welsh gwerth.

Adjective

worth (not comparable)

1. Having a value of; proper to be exchanged for.

2. Deserving of.
3. (obsolete, except in Scots) Valuable, worthwhile.
4. Making a fair equivalent of, repaying or compensating.

Usage notes

The modern adjectival senses of worth compare two noun phrases, prompting some sources to classify the word as a preposition. Most, however, list it an adjective, some with notes like "governing a noun with prepositional force." Fowler's Modern English Usage says, "the adjective worth requires what is most easily described as an object."

Joan Maling (1983) shows that worth is best analysed as a preposition rather than an adjective. CGEL (2002) analyzes it as an adjective.

Compare:

• Organic strawberries are worth paying extra money for.
• It's worth paying extra money for organic strawberries.

When "worth" is used as an adjective of a subject, the verb "to be" (usually associated with "worth") is singular or plural in accordance with the subject (in the first example, in the plural). In the other case, shown in the second example, the subject is the pronoun "it".

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

worth (countable and uncountable, plural worths)

1. (countable) Value.

   I’ll have a dollar's worth of candy, please.

   They have proven their worths as individual fighting men and their worth as a unit.

   stocks having a worth of two million pounds

2. (uncountable) Merit, excellence.

   Our new director is a man whose worth is well acknowledged.
3. (uncountable) Wealth, fortune, riches, property, possessions.
4. (uncountable) An amount that could be achieved or produced in a specified time.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English worthen, wurthen, werthen (“to be; exist; come into being; come into existence”), from Old English weorþan (“to come into being; be made; become; arise; be”), from Proto-West Germanic *werþan, from Proto-Germanic *werþan? (“to come about; happen; come into being; become”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn; turn out”).

Cognate with Dutch worden, Low German warrn, German werden, Old Norse verða (Norwegian verta, Swedish varda), Latin vertere.

Alternative forms

• word

Verb

worth (third-person singular simple present worths, present participle worthing, simple past worth or worthed, past participle worth or worthed or worthen)

1. (obsolete, except in set phrases) To be, become, betide.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 3, "Landlord Edmund"

     For, adds our erudite Friend, the Saxon weorthan equivalent to the German werden, means to grow, to become; traces of which old vocable are still found in the North-country dialects, as, ‘What is word of him?’ meaning ‘What is become of him?’ and the like. Nay we in modern English still say, ‘Woe worth the hour.’ [i.e. Woe befall the hour]

   Woe worth the man that crosses me.

   (May good fortune befall you, my friend.)

Derived terms

• forworth

References

• worth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• worth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• worth at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Joan Maling (1983), Transitive Adjectives: A Case of Categorial Reanalysis, in F. Henry and B. Richards (eds.), Linguistic Categories: Auxiliaries and Related Puzzles, vol.1, pp. 253-289.

Anagrams

• throw, whort, wroth

Scots

Etymology

From Old English weorþ

Adjective

worth (comparative mair worth, superlative maist worth)

1. Valuable, worth while.

English

Alternative forms

• vertu, vertuu (obsolete), vertue (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English vertu, virtue, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertu, virtu, from Latin virtus (“manliness, bravery, worth, moral excellence”), from vir (“man”). Doublet of vertu. See virile.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?v??t?u?/, /-tju?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?v?t?u/
• Hyphenation: vir?tue

Noun

virtue (countable and uncountable, plural virtues)

1. (uncountable) Accordance with moral principles; conformity of behaviour or thought with the strictures of morality; good moral conduct. [from 13th c.]
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, XV.1:

     There are a set of religious, or rather moral, writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world.
2. A particular manifestation of moral excellence in a person; an admirable quality. [from 13th c.]
   • 1766, Laurence Sterne, Sermon XLIV:

     Some men are modest, and seem to take pains to hide their virtues; and, from a natural distance and reserve in their tempers, scarce suffer their good qualities to be known […] .

3. Specifically, each of several qualities held to be particularly important, including the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues, or the seven virtues opposed to the seven deadly sins. [from 14th c.]
4. An inherently advantageous or excellent quality of something or someone; a favourable point, an advantage. [from 14th c.]
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:

     There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out.

   • 2011, The Guardian, Letter, 14 Mar 2011

     One virtue of the present coalition government's attack on access to education could be to reopen the questions raised so pertinently by Robinson in the 1960s […] .

5. A creature embodying divine power, specifically one of the orders of heavenly beings, traditionally ranked above angels and below archangels. [from 14th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book X:

     Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers; / For in possession such, not only of right, / I call ye, and declare ye now […] .

6. (uncountable) Specifically, moral conduct in sexual behaviour, especially of women; chastity. [from 17th c.]
7. (obsolete) The inherent power of a god, or other supernatural being. [13th–19th c.]
8. The inherent power or efficacy of something (now only in phrases). [from 13th c.]
   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     There was a virtue in the wave;
     His limbs, that, stiff with toil,
     Dragg’d heavy, from the copious draught receiv’d
     Lightness and supple strength.

   • 2011, "The autumn of the patriarchs", The Economist, 17 Feb 2011:

     many Egyptians still worry that the Brotherhood, by virtue of discipline and experience, would hold an unfair advantage if elections were held too soon.

Synonyms

• douth (obsolete), thew
• See Thesaurus:goodness

Antonyms

• (excellence in morals): vice
• foible

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• aretaic
• paragon

Further reading

• virtue in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• virtue in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• virtue on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Viruet

Middle English

Noun

virtue

1. Alternative form of vertu