wether
n. countablen. a male sheep that has been castrated. This word is very old-fashioned and is mostly used in farming or poetry today.
n. a castrated male sheep.
The farmer kept the wether in a separate pen.
In the old farm records, the shepherd noted that the wether was healthy and ready for the winter grazing.
The poet used the image of the wether to symbolize a life of quiet labor and domestic contentment, contrasting it with the wild freedom of the uncastrated ram.
From Middle English wether, wethir, wedyr, from Old English weþer (“a wether, ram”), from Proto-West Germanic weþru, from Proto-Germanic weþruz (“wether”), from Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“year”). Cognates Cognate with Scots weddir, woddir, wadder (“wether”), Dutch weder, weer (“wether”), German Widder (“wether, ram”), Norwegian Bokmål vær (“ram”), Norwegian Nynorsk vêr (“ram”), Swedish vädur (“wether, ram”), Icelandic veður (“wether, ram”), Latin vitulus (“calf”).