wargus

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Latin wargus, from Old English warg, wearh, wearg (“outlaw, criminal”), from Proto-West Germanic *warg, from Proto-Germanic *wargaz (“criminal, wolfish individual”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to twist, bend, crook”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɔː(ɹ)ɡəs/

Noun

wargus (plural wargi)

1. (historical) An outlaw, outcast, or exile; one driven out of society for their crimes.
   • 1991, Katherine Fischer Drew, The Laws of the Salian Franks - Page 188:

     If anyone has dug up or despoiled a body already in the sepulchre, let him be an outlaw (wargus) — that is, let him be expelled from that district until it is agreeable to the relatives of the dead and those relatives themselves have sought on his behalf that he be allowed to live within the district.

   • 2012, Nancy J. Hirschmann, Joanne H. Wright, Feminist Interpretations of Thomas Hobbes, page 87:

     Rather, civilization is made when the wolf becomes sovereign. Hobbes's sovereign wolf resembles instead Giorgio Agamben's sovereign, the correlative figure to the homo sacer characterized as the banned Germanic outlaw, the wargus, or wolf-man: […]

   • 2013, Gideon Baker, Hospitality and World Politics - Page 131:

     In ancient Germanic law, the wargus was a figure 'excluded from the community' whom 'anyone was permitted to kill'.

   • [2013, Peter Nyers, Rethinking Refugees: Beyond State of Emergency - Page 74:

     The Old Norse word for wolf (vargr) was also the legal term for “outlaw”—that is, the wolf is that person who is outside the law. In ancient Germanic law, the term wargus was used to refer to both the outlaw and the wolf-man.]

Related terms

• warriangle
• warry

Latin

Alternative forms

• vargus

Etymology

From Old English warg (“outlaw, criminal”), from Proto-West Germanic *warg, from Proto-Germanic *wargaz (“criminal”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯ar.ɡus/, [ˈu̯ärɡʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvar.ɡus/, [ˈvärɡus]

Noun

wargus m (genitive wargī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin, England) An outlaw or criminal.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	wargus	wargī
genitive	wargī	wargōrum
dative	wargō	wargīs
accusative	wargum	wargōs
ablative	wargō	wargīs
vocative	warge	wargī