guard [LME] An Old Germanic element meaning ‘to watch, guard’ lies behind both guard and ward. Ward came into English from Old English weard ‘watchman, guard’. The sense ‘child protected by a guardian’ is Late Middle English, and the sense of a hospital ward, where you are watched over by nurses or wardens, is mid 18th. Meanwhile, Germanic-speaking Franks had taken over areas of Europe that were mainly Romance speaking, and introduced the word into Romance. The w became a g(u) and the word became g(u)arde in Old French from which the g- forms were introduced into English. The g- and w- forms (found as alternatives in other words in modern French and English, as in the name William or Guillaume) are also found in warden [ME] and guardian [LME]. Wardrobe [LME], a place where you look after clothes, has an alternative garderobe [ME]. These were once interchangeable. However, garderobe is now mainly restricted to a term for a medieval lavatory. Wardrobe could have this sense in the past, for both words developed the sense of a small room where you could be private, and from there somewhere you could do something in private (compare privy at private).