Worth

For some reason I became interest in the word 'worth'. I think it started with my curiosity about it being used as a suffix on the end of surnames, like in Moneysworth, Woolworth, Wordsworth, and Shuttleworth.

My first instinct was to look the word up in the dictionary. One origin of the word given is Goth, dating before 900AD. Goth is the language of the Teutonic people who in the 3rd to 5th centuries invaded and settled in parts of the Roman Empire. I presume the town of Gotha in Thuringia, Germany was named for the Goth people.

The names I mentioned above I believe originated in northwestern England, in Lancashire and Cumbria. I guess some Goth people settled there, since it was once part of the Roman Empire. Who knows when worth got its meanings of value, merit and quality? I think it is save to say, though, that it was affixed to surnames to denote and convey the sense of wealth or the trustworthiness of the person so named.

As I examined the word more closely I discovered the Goth word for worth is wairths. I found this fascinating because of its similarity to my surname Airth. I always understood Airth to be a Scottish name, but now I believe it may have originated from the Goth, who may have also settled in Scotland. The name Airth, though, was thought to have originated from the word 'air' or 'earth'. However, nobody really knows for sure. But as I have discovered, there may be another explanation for its origin, the Goth word for worth.

The Old English pronunciation of worth is weorth, which sounds and looks a lot like earth. The Goth pronunciation of worth is wairths, which sounds very much like the Scots would pronounce worth. (As the Gershwin song goes, “You say worth, I say wairths…”) From this I am inclined to thing that Airth came from the Old English weorth and the Goth wairths, meaning that Airth means both earth and worth. And there is a connection there. Earth, in the form of land, is worth something. Being an Airth I would sooner take as one of its origins ‘earth’ rather than ‘air’ because earth conveys more worth.

Perhaps the first Airth was a wealthy landowner, hence the name. Why, there’s even a castle in Scotland named Airth, started by Fergus de Erth. I imagine a Scotsman once having said, “Your name should be airth because your wairths something”.

And what has all this to do with democracy, as it shows in my masthead? Perhaps nothing. But it was a Scotsman with another name, Smith, who helped the development of democracy by persuading governments to let people be free to purse their own self-interests and worth.