ween

English edit

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /wiːn/
Homophones: wean
Rhymes: -iːn
Audio (US) (file)

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English wene, from Old English wēn, wēna (“hope, weening, expectation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāni, from Proto-Germanic *wēniz, *wēnǭ (“hope, expectation”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, love, want, reach, win”). Cognate with Dutch waan (“delusion”), Afrikaans waan (“delusion”), German Wahn (“illusion, false hope”).

Noun edit

ween (plural weens)

(obsolete) Doubt; conjecture.

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English wenen, from Old English wēnan, from Proto-Germanic *wēnijaną. Cognate with Dutch wanen, German wähnen.

Verb edit

ween (third-person singular simple present weens, present participle weening, simple past weened or (obsolete) wende or (obsolete) wente, past participle weened or (obsolete) wend or (obsolete) went)

(archaic) To suppose, imagine; to think, believe.
- 1481, Author unknown (pseudonym Sir John Mandeville), The travels of Sir John Mandeville:
  And when they will fight they will shock them together in a plump; that if there be 20000 men, men shall not ween that there be scant 10000.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “viij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:
  And ryght as Arthur was on horsbak / ther cam a damoisel from Morgan le fey and broughte vnto syr Arthur a swerd lyke vnto Excalibur / […] / and sayd vnto Arthur Morgan le fey sendeth here your swerd for grete loue / and he thanked her / & wende it had ben so / but she was fals / for the swerd and the scaubard was counterfeet & brutyll and fals
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:
  Then sayde Peter unto hym: Perissh thou and thy money togedder. For thou wenest that the gyfte of god maye be obteyned with money?
- 1562, John Heywood, The proverbs, epigrams, and miscellanies of John Heywood:
  Wise men in old time would ween themselves fools; Fools now in new time will ween themselves wise.
- 1677, Thomas Mall, A cloud of witnesses:
  … for I ween he will no longer suffer him to abide among the adulterous and wicked Generation of this World.
- 1816, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “(please specify the page)”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], →OCLC:
  But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
  Shall wholly do away, I ween,
  The marks of that which once hath been.
- 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “When I was a lad”, in H.M.S. Pinafore; […], San Francisco: Bacon & Company, […], →OCLC:
  And that junior partnership, I ween, Was the only ship that I ever had seen.
- 1884, W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida:
  Yet humble second shall be first, I ween
- 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XVIII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:
  Little ween the snug card-players in the cabin of the responsibilities of the sleepless man on the bridge.
- 1974, Stanisław Lem, translated by Michael Kandel, The Cyberiad:
  Klapaucius too, I ween,
  Will turn the deepest green
  To hear such flawless verse from Trurl’s machine.
(dated) To expect, hope or wish.

Derived terms edit

Etymology 3 edit

From Middle English weinen (“to wail, lament”), from Old English wānian (“to bewail, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *wainōną (“to cry, lament, grieve”). Cognate with Dutch wenen (“to weep, cry”), German weinen (“to weep, cry”), Icelandic veina (“to wail, cry out”), West Frisian weine (“to weep, cry”).