warden

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːdən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔɹdən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)dən

From Middle English wardein, from Anglo-Norman wardein, from warder (“to guard”), variant of Old French guarder (“to guard”) (whence modern French garder, also English guard), from Proto-Germanic *ward-; related to Old High German wartēn (“to watch”). Compare guardian, French gardien, from Old French guardian, guardein. Compare also ward and reward. Doublet of guardian.

warden (plural wardens)

1. (archaic or literary) A guard or watchman.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter IV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     He called to the wardens on the outside battlements.

     The original (UK) editions read warders rather than wardens.

2. A chief administrative officer of a prison.
   • 1934, Nathanael West, “Chapter 7”, in A Cool Million‎:

     The warden of the state prison, Ezekiel Purdy, was a kind man if stern. He invariably made all newcomers a little speech of welcome […]

3. An official charged with supervisory duties or with the enforcement of specific laws or regulations; such as a game warden or air-raid warden.
4. A governing official in various institutions

   the warden of a college

• → Welsh: warden, gwarden

warden (third-person singular simple present wardens, present participle wardening, simple past and past participle wardened)

1. To carry out the duties of a warden.

From Middle English wardon, origin uncertain; perhaps from Anglo-Norman or Anglo-Latin wardo, -ōnis.[1]

warden (plural wardens)

1. A variety of pear.
   • c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:

     Faith I would have had him rosted like a warden in a brown Paper, and no more talk on’t:

   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I must have saffron to colour the warden pies;

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Gardens”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     In September, come Grapes; Apples; Poppies of all colours; Peaches; Melo-Cotones; Nectarines; Cornelians; Wardens; Quinces.

   • 1903, E. Bartrum, The Book of Pears and Plums‎, London: John Lane, page 30:

     Wardens, a name given to pears which never melt, are long keeping, and used for cooking only. The name comes from the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in Beds. Parkinson’s Warden is now Black Worcester. There are Spanish, White and Red Wardens.

• Warden on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Warden in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• Andrew, Darwen, Wander, drawne, wander, warned

• gwarden

Borrowed from English warden.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwardɛn/

warden m (plural wardeniaid or wardeiniaid)

1. warden

• warden traffig

H-prothesis does not affect this word as the ⟨w⟩ here represents the semivowel /w/ rather than a vowel sound.