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Well, part of the time, anyway. Look what I just came across whilst poking around; it had never occurred to me to wonder about the origin of the word answer:
What is the origin of the word answer? Why is there a "w" in the spelling?
Scott Mariash
Scott, your enquiry left me guessing. So I looked up the etymology of "Answer" in the OED online and this is what it says:
answer, n.
[OE. andswaru, cogn. with OS. antswôr, OFris. (ontswer) ondser, ON. andsvar, annsvar, Dan. and Sw. ansvar, OTeut. *andswarâ-; f. and- against, in reply + *swarâ- affirmation, swearing, f. OTeut. *swarjan, Goth. swaran, OE. sw rian to affirm, swear. The original meaning was thus a solemn affirmation made to rebut a charge.] So it's clear that the "w" comes in from the root "swarjan" to swear - so answer and swear share a common source. It's just that the "w" is now silent. I can't help you with when that happened, but many Elizabethan pronunciations were much more literal than now - which is why they were spelled that way ...
Simon Elmes, Exec Producer http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/youtellus/messageboard2.shtml
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So if you rebut somebody with a profanity you...
answer and swear?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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"answer and swear"
Where does this sense of the word 'swear' come from, as opposed to taking an oath?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Father Steve could deal with this question best I think, but probably the word ‘swear’ in that sense originates with an oath! I reckon that swearing originally was always blasphemous and was therefore the misuse of an oath. So, a serious oath, ‘I swear by God to ....' became ‘By God!’ in a blasphemous usage. So it was misusing the process of swearing an oath. Other, usually four-letter, words that we now call swearing but are scatological or sexual in character were just normal Anglo-Saxon usage at one time! Lately, people have started inventing new words for strange habits  and maybe those will become swear words in time. But don’t let’s go there!
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Pooh-Bah
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re: dxb's
I don't think taking an oath was blasphemy, at least, not in Jewish law. It is, however, not kosher to make a vain oath -- one you will not fulfill, and this regardless of intention. Swear vainly in God's name -- "to take the Lord's name in vain" certainly isn't kosher, although, I suppose, to take an oath in God's name is not per se wrong, if unadvisable. With that possible modification, yes, your explanation seems right to me.
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"Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."
~Matthew 5:33-37 (Authorized Version)
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Pooh-Bah
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re: dxb's
I don't think taking an oath was blasphemy
You're quite right, I didn't intend to imply that, but I was a little careless with my wording! When I said 'I reckon that swearing originally was always blasphemous and was therefore the misuse of an oath' I meant that swearing in the profane or obscene sense was always done by using blasphemy, scatalogical type swearing as we know it today came along later.
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