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''aver'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250719002347-00-⌔

aver - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

aver (third-person singular simple present avers, present participle averring, simple past and past participle averred)

  • (ambitransitive) To assert the truth of (something); to affirm (something) with confidence; to declare (something) in a positive manner.
    • ✤ A rare thing to ſee a yong man or woman, that liues idlely, and fares well, of what condition ſoeuer, not to bee in loue. Vbicumqꝫ ſecuritas, ibi libido dominatur, luſt & ſecurity domineere together, as S Hierome auerreth.1
    • ✤ Now as to the Scriptures being the Word of God, and evidently known to be ſo, or evidencing themſelves to be ſo, and that of right, and properly they are to be ſo called; all which thou J. O. very abſolutely averreſt, […]2
    • ✤ Chiron, the four-legg’d Bard, had both/A Beard and Tail of his own growth;/And yet by Authors ‘tis averr’d,/He made use onely of his Beard.3
    • ✤ [T]he partial Infidel […] averreth the Sleep or Inſenſibility of the Soul both in good and bad perſons, from the time of their Deceaſe hence until their Reſurrection; […]4
    • ✤ The Devil, I safely can aver,/Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting;/Nor is he, as some sages swear,/A spirit, neither here nor there,/In nothing—yet in everything.5
    • ✤ An Irish author avers that the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees, did likewise present to her highness another horn, pertaining to a land beast of the unicorn nature.6
    • ✤ As Coroner, I must aver, I thoroughly examined her./And she’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.7
    • ✤ Horticulturalist Richard Lighty has a form [of Trillium grandiflorum] that he avers to open almost a cerise-red.8
    • ✤ In the meantime, on 5 June 2000, the applicant had brought a civil action against the Prosecutor’s Office. He alleged that the termination of his contract had been unlawful and sought reinstatement and compensation for loss of salary. He averred, inter alia, that the climate in the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office had deteriorated as a result of the actions of the Chief Prosecutor.9
    • ✤ Aver: To state or allege10
    • ✤ [W]hen Yara tells him he picked the losing side, he avers that he might just as soon head back to the Iron Islands—“But first, I’m gonna fuck the queen” […]11
    • ✤ “I think what we’re witnessing is a groundswell of independent thinking, people taking things into their own hands,” he avers.12
  • (ambitransitive, law) To justify or prove (an allegation or plea that one has made).
  • (transitive, obsolete) To avouch, prove, or verify the existence or happening of (something), or to offer to do so.
    • ✤ […] I return’d with ſimular proofe enough,/To make the Noble Leonatus mad,/By wounding his beleefe in her Renowne,/With tokens thus, and thus: auerring notes/Of Chamber-hanging, Pictures, this her Bracelet/(Oh cunning how I got) nay ſome markes/Of ſecret on her perſon, that he could not/But thinke her bond of Chaſtity quite crack’d,/I hauing tane the forfeyt.13
    • ✤ Upon a time the Body summon’d all the Members to meet in the Guild for the common good (as Aesops Chronicles averre many stranger Accidents) the head by right takes the first seat, and next to it a huge and monstrous Wen little lesse than the Head it selfe, growing to it by a narrower excrescency.14
    • ✤ [A]lthough thou averrest this, and averrest it truly, we are nevertheless constrained to plead guilty to the possession of so much of this sensibility [a refusal to hear details] (call it “sickly” if thou wilt) as that they case once proved, our feeling of duty refuses to sustain us any longer against that combined and overwhelming influence of shattered nerves and a sickened heart.15

Noun

aver (plural avers)

  • (UK, dialectal, archaic) A beast of burden; chiefly a workhorse, but also a working ox or other animal.
  • (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, archaic) An old, useless horse; a nag.
    • ✤ […] Gilbert has but two half-starved cowardly peasants to follow him, and but an auld jaded aver to ride upon, fitter for the plough than for manly service; […]16

Etymology 1

From Middle English averren,17 from Old French averer, from Early Medieval Latin advērō, a verb derived from Latin vērus (“true”). Compare Modern French avérer.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /əˈvɜː/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /əˈvɝ/
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

Etymology 2

From Middle English aver, avere (“workhorse; any beast of burden (?); things which are owned, possessions, property, wealth; state of being rich, wealth; ownership, possession”) [and other forms],1819 and then either:

  • from Old French aver, aveir, avoir (“possession, property; (collectively) beasts of burden; domestic animals; cattle”) (modern French avoir (“asset, possession”)), from aveir, avoir (“to have”), from Latin habēre (“to have, hold; to have, own (possessions)”),20 from Proto-Indo-European ﹡gʰeh₁bʰ-, ﹡ǵʰeh₁bʰ- (“to grab, take”); or
  • from Old English eafor (“workhorse; tenant’s obligation to transport goods”), further etymology uncertain.18

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈeɪvə/
    • Homophone: Ava
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈeɪvɚ/

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Causes of Heroicall Loue, Temperature, Full Diet, Idlenesse, Place, Climat, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 2, subsection 1, page 209: ↩

  2. 1660, Samuel Fisher, “ [Rusticus ad Academicos in Exercitationibus Expostulatoriis, Apologeticis Quatuor. The Rustick’s Alarm to the Rabbies: Or, The Country Correcting the University and Clergy, and (Not without Good Cause) Contesting for the Truth, against the Nursing Mothers and Their Children. In Four Apologetical and Expostulatory Exercitations; […]] The Third Apologetical, and Expostulatory Exercitation”, in The Testimony of Truth Exalted, […], [London?]: [s.n.], published 1679, →OCLC, chapter I, page 411: ↩

  3. 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 31: ↩

  4. 1701, Lawrence Smith, “[First Discourse on 2 Timothy 1:10]”, in The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Or, The Immortality of the Human Soul, and the Separate Condition thereof in the Other World, Asserted and Made Manifest: […], London: […] Thomas Speed, […], →OCLC, page 1: ↩

  5. 1819, Miching Mallecho [pseudonym; Percy Bysshe Shelley], “Peter Bell the Third”, in[Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], new edition, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1840, →OCLC, part the second (The Devil), stanza 1, page 239: ↩

  6. 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Cetology”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 156: ↩

  7. 1939 August 25, “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead”, in Yip Harburg (lyrics), Harold Arlen (music), The Wizard of Oz (soundtrack), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: ↩

  8. 1997, Frederick W. Case, Jr.; Roberta B. Case, “The North American Trilliums”, in Trilliums, Portland, Or.: Timber Press, →ISBN, page 109: ↩

  9. 2007 July 26, European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), Peev v. Bulgaria (Application no. 64209/01)‎, Strasbourg, paragraph 19: ↩

  10. 2010, Justiciary of Scotland, “Glossary”, in ‎, archived from the original on 19 August 2019: ↩

  11. 2019 April 14, Alex McLevy, “Winter is Here on Game of Thrones ’ Final Season Premiere (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club ‎, archived from the original on 18 December 2020: ↩

  12. 2025 June 14, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “James Blake’s fight against ‘free music’”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 12: ↩

  13. 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 396, column 2: ↩

  14. 1641 May, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC; republished in Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC, page 54: ↩

  15. 1841 December, R[ichard] R[obert] Madden, “Address on Slavery in Cuba, Presented to the General Anti-slavery Convention”, in The Churchman’s Monthly Review, London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside; and sold by L. and G. Seeley, […], →OCLC, page 705: ↩

  16. 1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 214: ↩

  17. “averren, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  18. “āver, n. (1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩ ↩2

  19. “avēr, n. (2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  20. “aver, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021. ↩

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