An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Warze

by Friedrich Kluge

Warze, feminine, ‘wart, teat,’ from the equivalent Middle High German warze, Old High German warza, feminine; corresponding to Gothic *wartô, Old Icelandic varta, Anglo-Saxon wearte, English wart, and the equivalent Dutch wrat. The early history of Teutonic wartô- (from Aryan wardô-) is uncertain; some connect it with the Aryan root wrd, ‘to grow,’ from which Wurzel is derived, and regard Warze as ‘excrescence’ (compare Old Slovenian vrědŭ, ‘eruption’). Others prefer to compare it with Anglo-Saxon wearre, ‘weal,’ Latin verrûca, ‘wart,’ the rr of which may have arisen by the loss of an intermediate dental.