Other forms: wares
Ware means goods of a particular kind offered for sale. Silverware, glassware, sell his wares.
It survives chiefly as the second half of a compound naming a material or use: hardware, software, kitchenware, tableware, earthenware. In the plural, wares means goods generally, and sell your wares is a fixed and slightly old-fashioned phrase used as much figuratively as literally. Note warehouse, which is where wares are kept; and beware, which is a different word entirely meaning be wary.
1nounwareGoods of a particular kind offered for sale.
“Market traders shouted about their wares to passers-by.”
ware is goods for sale.
Old English waru meant goods, from a Germanic root about watching or guarding — the same root as aware and wary. Goods were named for being looked after, and warehouse keeps the guarding in the building.
Proto-Indo-European
*wer-
Middle English
ware
English, today
ware
From Middle English ware. From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic waru, from Proto-Germanic warō (“attention”) as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European wer- (“to watch, keep guard”), whence also ward. Cognate with stq Were (“an item for exchange, barter, or sale; ware”), Dutch waar (“goods offered for sale or use; ware”), German Ware (“ware”), Danish -, Norwegian Bokmål -, Norwegian Nynorsk vare (“ware”), Faroese vøra (“ware”), Icelandic - and Swedish vara (“ware”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA