Answer
is the Old English and-swaru, verb and swar-ian or swerian, where And is the preposition = the Latin re in re-spond-eo. (See Swear.)
To answer like a Norman, that is, evasively.
“We say, in France, ‘Answering like a Norman,ʹ which means to give an evasive answer, neither yes nor no.”—Max OʹRell; Friend MʹDonald, ch. v.
To answer its purpose, to carry out what was expected or what was intended. Celsus says, “Medicīna sæpius respondet, interdum tamen fallit.”
In both the last two instances the word is “answering to a summons.” To swear means literally “to affirm something,” and to an-swear is to “say something” by way of rejoinder; but figuratively both the “swer” and the “answer” may be made without words.
“… . My story being done, …
She [Desdemona] swore [affirmed] ʹtwas strange, … .
ʹTwas pitiful, ʹtwas wondrous pitiful.”
