wiernan

Old English

From Proto-West Germanic *warnijan, from Proto-Germanic *warnijaną, from *warnō (“obstacle”); related to werian (“to protect”). Cognate with Old Frisian werna, Old Norse verna (Danish værne). Compare wearnian.

wiernan (West Saxon)

to refuse, deny
- c. 1005, Wulfstan, Laws of Edward and Guthrum‎:
  Ġif dēaþsċyldiġ man sċriftsprǣċe ġierne, ne him man nǣfre ne wierne.
  If someone condemned to death desires confession, it should never be refused to them.
to reject, decline
to withhold
to forbid, prevent

Conjugation of wiernan (weak class 1)

Middle English: wernen, warn, warne, werne, worne, wurne; wærnen, wearne, wearnen, weorne (through the Anglian form)

Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “wirnan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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