380: aware Dec 23, 2015

'Aware' comes from the Old English 'gewær' which comes from 'waru' meaning ‘commodities,’ and is perhaps the same word as Scots, 'ware' which means ‘cautiousness.’ It and its participle, 'warn' (in Modern English) has the primary sense ‘object of care’. It might seem intuitive, but 'beware' is just a contraction of 'be and 'ware', as a somewhat rare passive imperative.