O.E.
woruld, worold "human existence, the affairs of life," also "the human race, mankind," a word peculiar to Gmc. languages (cf. O.S.
werold, O.Fris.
warld, Du.
wereld, O.N.
verold, O.H.G.
weralt, Ger.
Welt), with a literal sense of "age of man," from P.Gmc.
*wer "man" (O.E.
wer, still in
werewolf; see
virile) +
*ald "age" (see
old). Originally "life on earth, this world (as opposed to the afterlife)," sense extended to "the known world" (e.g. "Greatest Show on Earth"), then to "the physical world in the broadest sense, the universe" (c.1200). In O.E. gospels, the commonest word for "the physical world," was
Middangeard (O.N.
Midgard), lit. "the middle enclosure" (cf.
yard), which is rooted in Gmc. cosmology. Gk.
kosmos in its ecclesiastical sense of "world of people" sometimes was rendered in Goth. as
manaseþs, lit. "seed of man." The usual O.N. word was
heimr, lit. "abode" (see home). Words for "world" in some other I.E. languages derive from the root for "bottom, foundation" (cf. Ir.
domun, O.C.S.
duno, related to Eng.
deep); the Lith. word is
pasaulis, from
pa- "under" +
saule "sun." Original sense in
world without end, translating L.
sæcula sæculorum, and in
worldly. L.
sæculum can mean both "age" and "world," as can Gk.
aion. Worldwide is from 1632.
World power in the geopolitical sense first recorded 1900.
World-class is attested from 1950, originally of Olympic athletes.
[wurld] 
) a particular division of the earth: the Western world.