![]() Worms "any disease arising from the presence of parasitic worms" is from late Old English. As an insult meaning "abject, miserable person" it dates from Old English. For substitution of -o- for -u-, see come. The ancient category of these was much more extensive than the modern, scientific, one and included serpents, scorpions, maggots, and the supposed causes of certain diseases. Old English wurm, variant of wyrm "serpent, snake, dragon, reptile," also in later Old English "earthworm," from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German, German wurm, Old Frisian and Dutch worm, Old Norse ormr, Gothic waurms "serpent, worm"), from PIE *wrmi- "worm" (source also of Greek rhomos, Latin vermis "worm," Old Russian vermie "insects," Lithuanian varmas "insect, gnat"), from PIE *wrmi- "worm," from root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend." The use of books or written charters was introduced in Anglo-Saxon times by the ecclesiastics, as affording more permanent and satisfactory evidence of a grant or conveyance of land than the symbolical or actual delivery of possession before witnesses, which was the method then in vogue. To do something by the book "according to the rules" is from 1590s. Book of Life "the roll of those chosen for eternal life" is from mid-14c. Meaning "sum of criminal charges" is from 1926, hence slang phrase throw the book at (1932). A betting book "record of bets made" is from 1812. 1200 as "a main subdivision of a larger work." Meaning "libretto of an opera" is from 1768. Later also "bound pages," whether written on or not. ![]() The sense gradually narrowed by early Middle English to "a written work covering many pages fastened together and bound," also "a literary composition" in any form, of however many volumes. The Old English word originally meant any written document. And compare French livre "book," from Latin librum, originally "the inner bark of trees" (see library). ![]() Latin and Sanskrit also have words for "writing" that are based on tree names ("birch" and "ash," respectively). Old English boc "book, writing, written document," generally referred (despite phonetic difficulties) to Proto-Germanic *bōk(ō)-, from *bokiz "beech" (source also of German Buch "book" Buche "beech " see beech), the notion being of beechwood tablets on which runes were inscribed but it may be from the tree itself (people still carve initials in them). ![]()
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