Etymology Dictionary

WARDEN,  (1) a guardian, keeper, (2) a kind of pear.   (F.,—M.H.G.)   Though the verb to ward is English, and so is its derivative warder, the sb. warden is F., as shewn by the suffix.   1. M.E. wardein, Ancren Riwle, p. 272, l. 4.—O.F. wardein*, not given in Burguy, but necessarily the old spelling of O.F. gardein, gardain, a warden, guardian; since warder is given as the old spelling of garder.   Cf. Low Lat. gardianus, a guardian; shewing that O.F. wardein was formed from ward-er by help of the Lat. suffix -i-anus.   See Ward.   2. A warden was 'a large coarse pear used for baking,' Wright's Voc. i. 229, note 1, where we also find it spelt wardun, in a Nominale of the 15th century; it is spelt warden in Shak. Wint. Tale, iv. 3. 48.   It meant a keeping pear; Cotgrave has 'poire de garde, a warden, or winter pear, a pear which may be kept very long;' also the adj. gardien, 'keeping, warding, guarding,' answering to Low Lat. gardianus (for wardianus), used as an adjective. [†]

ADDENDA

Anglo-F. wardein, Gaimar's Chron. l. 5443; Lib. Albus, p. 247.