Verwest ein Verweser?

[glhansen]

Why is an administrator a Verweser? I totally misunderstood the person's role until I looked it up!

Comments

[schnee]

Haven't got the slightest clue - you'll have to consult an etymological dictionary or exposition -, but my guess would be that perhaps, “verwesen” as in “administrate” is an older meaning that was lost over time and only survives in “Verweser”, with “decay” having appeared later?

(If you find out, post about it here!)

[glhansen]

Well, now I'm thinking of things like one who causes spoilage and decay (I assume that would be a demon of some kind), a Verwesenswesen. And the administrator of the Department of Decay (one of the minor offices of hell) would be the Verwesensverweser. But Google doesn't agree that those are words.

[schnee]

Ah! What does Google know, those are perfectly cromulent words. :)

[glhansen]

I assume this is what they look like.