Forms: 1 wearte, 2, 4–6 werte, 4–5 wertte, 3–7 wert, 5–6 warte, 7–8 whart, 4– wart; 4 wrot, 4–5 wret(e, wrett(e, 6 wratte, 7–9 Sc. and dial. wrat, 9 dial. wret, writ. [OE. wearte wk. fem. = OFris. warte, worte (WFris. wart), OS. warte (MLG. warte, wratte, LG. wratte, wratt), Du. wrat (dial. warte), OHG. warza (MHG., mod.G. warze), ON. varta (Sw. vårta, Norw. vorta, Da. vorte):—OTeut. *wartōn-.
The OHG. werzz (MHG. werze, mod.G. dial. wärze) appear to point to a derivative formation (OTeut. type *wartjōn-); but the apparently coincident ME. forms werte, wrette, etc., are regular dialectal representatives of OE. wearte. The existence both in Eng. and continental Teut. of metathetic forms with wr- is somewhat noteworthy.]
1. A small, round, dry, tough excrescence on the skin; especially common on the hands of young persons.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss., U 77. Uerruca, wearte.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 100. Wið swylas & wið weartan.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27088. Bot wald þai seme to mans sight In þair licam bath fair and slight, Wit-vten any wert or weme.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 555. Vp on the cope right of his nose he hade A werte [Camb. MS. wrete], and ther on stood a toft of herys.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 533/2. Wrette, or werte yn a mannys skynne, veruca.
a. 1529. Skelton, P. Sparowe, 1043. Her beautye to augment, Dame Nature hath her lent A warte vpon her cheke.
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples, 48. The juce thereof will … make smothe the skinne from wrattes.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXII. x. II. 448. The liver of the fish Glanus, causeth werts to fall off, if they be rubbed withall.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. xxxi. 25. The Wart, Pearle, Pin, or Webbe, which are euils growne in and vpon the Eye [of a horse].
1629. Z. Boyd, Last Battell, 1051. In such a case his wrats and his wrinkles must be wroght with the pinsell, that the image may bee like unto himselfe.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. I. xliii. 76. Our mountains in Wales … are Mole-hills in comparison of these [sc. the Alps], they are … but blisters compar’d to Impostumes, or Pimples to Werts.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Würtz’ Surg., II. xiv. 105. There were … found about the Wound Blisters and Wharts, which were caused by the hot dressings.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 112. Ray says, its Juice will wear out Wharts.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., viii. An unhealthy-looking boy, with warts all over his hands.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 343. Warts are not unfrequently met with about the eyelids.
b. = CONDYLOMA. In full syphilitic wart.
1552. Huloet, Wartes in the priuye partes, mirmeciæ.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. lxxiv. 767. The leaues of Sauin … do also cause wartes to fal of, which grow about the yarde and other secrete places of man.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 322. Syphilitic warts.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 621. Syphilitic mucous tubercles (so-called warts) in the external auditory canal.
c. A normal callosity on the legs of a horse, ass, etc.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 118. If a horse wante wartes behynde, benethe the spauen-place.
1824. J. E. Gray, in Zool. Jrnl., I. 243. The Asses and Zebras … have warts only on the arms and none on the hind legs;… the true Horses … are furnished with warts on their arms and legs.
d. Applied to other small excrescences on animate creatures.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VII. 109. These [sc. frogs’] eggs are buried deep in the skin … and the spaces between them are full of small warts, resembling pearls.
1861. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 149. The general surface of the body … in some Sea-anemones … exhibits a number of clear warts or vesicles.
† 2. A nipple. Obs. rare–1. (So G. warze.)
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 534/1. Wrette, of a pappe or tete, papilla.
3. Bot. A rounded protuberance or excrescence on the surface of a plant.
[1677. Miége, Eng.-Fr. Dict., s.v., The wart in the middle of a flower, le bouton d’une fleur.]
1793. [see WARTED].
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 43. Verrucæ, or warts, are roundish excrescences, formed of cellular tissue filled with opaque matter.
1862. Darwin, Orchids, vi. 283. In Calanthe we have a cluster of odd little spherical warts on the labellum.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 425. Tough prominent warts, as those of Aloe verrucosa.
1895. W. R. Lawrence, Kashmir, xiii. 353. There was a demand for the huge warts which grow on the walnut stem,… and a Frenchman obtained from the State the right to saw off these warts.
4. transf. and fig. (from sense 1). A relatively small, or disfiguring, protuberance.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. i. 306. Let them throw Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground Sindging his pate against the burning Zone, Make Ossa like a wart.
1611. Tourneur, Ath. Trag., III. iii. I’ve lost a Signorie That was confin’d within a piece of earth, A wart upon the body of the world.
1650. Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, ii. § 4. 111. His faults are but warts, his vertues are mountainous.
1792. Holcroft, Road to Ruin, I. 12. You will not deny you are … A nuisance, a wart, a blot, a stain upon the face of nature!
1838. Emerson, Addr. Cambridge, Mass., Wks. (Bohn), II. 195. That which shows God out of me, makes me a wart and a wen.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. iii. The low building had the look of having once been a mill. There was a rotten wart of wood upon its forehead that seemed to indicate where the sails had been.
1869. F. Kohn, Iron & Steel Manuf., 88. If it be attempted to strengthen the linings by iron ribs,… the iron undergoing puddling immediately attaches itself to these, and forms great warts and scabs difficult of removal.
5. Mil. colloq. A very young subaltern.
1894. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Red Coats, 5. Anything more terrifying for ‘a wart’ than to have to sit for two hours—or three, if the Colonel is long-winded enough—and make talk, one can hardly imagine.
1914. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 309/1. A regimental ‘wart,’ reconnoitring along the river bank with a score of men.
6. attrib. and Comb., as wart-like, -eating, † -ribbed adjs.; wart-biter [= G. warzenbeisser, -fresser, Sw. vårtbitare], a grasshopper (Gryllus verrucivorus) supposed to destroy warts by biting them; wart-cress, the genus Senebiera; † wart-gowry [see GOWRIE], a variety of cowrie; wart-grass, Euphorbia Helioscopia (Britten and Holland); wart-herb (see quot.); wart-hog, a swine of the African genus Phacochœrus (see quot. 1913); wart-pock, -pox, a variety of chicken-pox; wart-shaped a., verruciform (Treas. Bot., 1866); † wart-shell, some variety of univalve shell; wart-snake, a colubriform snake of the family Acrochordidæ, having wart-like scales; wart-weed, Euphorbia Helioscopia, E. Peplus, and Chelidonium majus (the juice of these plants being used to cure warts). Also WARTWORT.
1864–5. Wood, Homes without H., viii. (1868), 161. The *Wart-biter.
1880. A. H. Swinton, Insect Variety, 162. The Great Green Leaf-cricket, or Wart-biter.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., 298. Coronopus. *Wart-cress.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1048. Senebiera didyma, the Lesser Wartcress.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 670. In Sweden they [i.e., warts] are destroyed by the Gryllus verrucivorus, or *wart-eating grasshopper.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., X. Tab. 97. Fork-mouth’d *Wart Gowry.
1864. Grisebach, Flora W. Ind. Isl., 788. *Wart-herb, Rynchosia minima.
1840. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 131. The *Wart-hogs.
1895. J. G. Millais, Breath fr. Veldt (1899), 127. We came across a fine old wart-hog boar.
1913. C. Pettman, Africanderisms, Wart hog.… The name refers to the fleshy excrescences or warts on its face.
1698. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XX. 329. Small *wart-like Tubercles.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 754. Epithelioma usually appears as a wart-like growth.
1873. F. T. Roberts, Handbk. Med., 186. Horn-pock or *Wart-pock.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., VIII. Tab. 80. *Wart-rib’d Barbadoes Limpet. Ibid., VII. Tab. 70. Jamaica *Wart-shell.
c. 1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 324. Family Acrochordidæ.—The *Wart Snakes.
1573. Arte of Limning, A ij b. The like sise maye you make … with the milke of spourge, or of *wartwede.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Wret-weed, any wild species of euphorbia.
1857. Anne Pratt, Flower. Pl., V. 5. Euphorbia helioscopia (Sun Spurge)…. Country people call it … Wart-weed.
