wesan

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

Verb

wesan

1. to be

Conjugation

Conjugation of wesan, sīn (irregular suppletive)

infinitive	wesan, sīn
indicative	present	past
1st person singular	bim, bin	was
2nd person singular	bis, bist	wāri
3rd person singular	is, ist	was
1st person plural	sīn	wārun
2nd person plural	sīt	wārut
3rd person plural	sint, sīn	wārun
subjunctive	present	past
1st person singular	sī	wāri
2nd person singular	sīs, sīst	wāris, wārist
3rd person singular	sī	wāri
1st person plural	sīn	wārin
2nd person plural	sīt	wārit
3rd person plural	sīn	wārin
imperative	present
singular	wis
plural	wisit
participle	present	past
	wesandi	giwesan

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: wēsen
  • Dutch: wezen
    • Afrikaans: wees
    • Jersey Dutch: wêze
    • Negerhollands: wees, wis
  • Limburgish: waeze

Further reading

• “wesan”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old English

Alternative forms

• weosan — Anglian
• wesa, wosa, uosa, wossa, uossa

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

The simple present forms originate from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”), which had no infinitive or past tense in Proto-Germanic, but had already formed a single paradigm with *wesaną supplying the infinitive and past tense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwe.sɑn/, [ˈwe.zɑn]

Verb

wesan

1. to be, exist
   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of The Consolation of Philosophy

     Þā cwæþ hē, "Wāst þū hwæt mann sīe?" Þā cwæþ iċ, "Iċ wāt þæt hit biþ sāwol and līchama."

     Then he said, "Do you know what a person is?" So I said, "I know it's a soul and a body."

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 9:12

     Þā cwǣdon hīe tō him, "Hwǣr is hē?" Þā cwæþ hē, "Iċ nāt."

     Then they said to him, "Where is he?" And he said, "I don't know."

Usage notes

• The verbs bēon and wesan both mean to be, but in different circumstances. For most purposes, wesan is used; bēon is used for what is known as the "gnomic present" and the future tense of to be.
  • The gnomic present, in short, refers to anything which is a general truth, like Winter biþ ċealdost ("Winter is coldest"), or Fēower sīðum seofon bēoþ eahta and twēntiġ ("Four times seven is (lit. "are") twenty-eight"). Generally, statements about the self will not be gnomic. For example, although it may seem that a statement like I am a person is always true, such a statement is nonetheless rendered with wesan: Iċ eom mann.
  • To be is the only verb in Old English for which the future tense may be indicated with morphology instead of adverbs or context clues, and for this purpose, bēon is used. So, I am the king is rendered as Iċ eom sē cyning, but I will be the king is rendered as Iċ bēo sē cyning. Note that bēon is not used for any other verb's future tense; both I see it and I will see it are written as Iċ hit ġesēo.
  • Both bēon and wesan share past tense forms.
• Both bēon and wesan are copulative verbs, which means they are not transitive and do not take a direct object. Because of this, predicate nouns and adjectives will be in the nominative case. For example: Hēo is iċ ("She is I"), not *Hēo is mē ("She is me").
• In the Anglian dialects, the present plural indicative form earon occurred alongside the sind/sindon forms. This may have been due to influence or loaning from the Old Norse cognate vera/vesa, or it may be an earlier native form that was lost entirely in the southern dialects.
• A regularised form wesaþ is also rarely attested for the present plural indicative, perhaps representing a hypercorrection due to influence from the infinitive and/or the imperative plural form (the latter being identical to the present plural indicative for most other Old English verbs).

Conjugation

Conjugation of wesan (irregular)

infinitive	wesan	wesenne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	eom	wæs
second person singular	eart	wǣre
third person singular	is	wæs
plural	sind, sindon	wǣron
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	sīe	wǣre
plural	sīen	wǣren
imperative
singular	wes
plural	wesaþ
participle	present	past
	wesende	—

Synonyms

• bēon

Derived terms

• ætwesan (“to be present”)
• forewesan (“to be before”)
• ġewesan (“to be together”)
• wist (“being”)

Etymology 2

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną (“to consume, feast”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to graze”). The only (possible) attestation is in the form weaxan in line 3115 of Beowulf, argued to be a misspelling of weosan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwe.sɑn/, [ˈwe.zɑn]

Verb

wesan

1. to consume or feast
   • c. 975–1025, Beowulf (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV)‎^[1], published 4th quarter 10th century–2nd half 16th century, lines 3114-15:

     "Nū sceal glēd fretan (weaxan wonna lēg) ⁠wigena strengel [...]"

     “Fire shall devour (and wan flames feed) on the fearless warrior [...]"

Usage notes

• The precise verb class is unknown. It is shown here according to what would be its etymologically inherited form, a class 5 strong verb.

Conjugation

Conjugation of wesan (strong class 5)

infinitive	wesan	wesenne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	wese	wæs
second person singular	wist	wǣre
third person singular	wist	wæs
plural	wesaþ	wǣron
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	wese	wǣre
plural	wesen	wǣren
imperative
singular	wes
plural	wesaþ
participle	present	past
	wesende	(ġe)weren

Descendants

• >? Middle English: wesen (“to tend flocks, pasture”)

Etymology 3

From Proto-West Germanic *wōsijan, from Proto-Germanic *wōsijaną, from *wōsą.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈweː.sɑn/, [ˈweː.zɑn]

Verb

wēsan

1. to soak; to macerate; to dye
2. to ooze

Conjugation

Conjugation of wēsan (weak class 1)

infinitive	wēsan	wēsenne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	wēse	wēsde
second person singular	wēsest, wēst	wēsdest
third person singular	wēseþ, wēst	wēsde
plural	wēsaþ	wēsdon
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	wēse	wēsde
plural	wēsen	wēsden
imperative
singular	wēs
plural	wēsaþ
participle	present	past
	wēsende	(ġe)wēsed

Further reading

• John R. Clark Hall (1916) “wesan”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[2], 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan, page 350
• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “wesan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[3], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old High German

Alternative forms

• sīn (less common infinitive, but became common over time)

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

Verb

wesan

1. to be, exist

Conjugation

Conjugation of wesan (irregular, suppletive)

infinitive	wesan
indicative	present	past
1st person singular	bim, bin	was
2nd person singular	bist, bis	wāri
3rd person singular	ist	was
1st person plural	birum, birun	wārum, wārumēs
2nd person plural	birut	wārut
3rd person plural	sint	wārun
subjunctive	present	past
1st person singular	sī	wāri
2nd person singular	sīs, sīst	wārīs, wārīst
3rd person singular	sī	wāri
1st person plural	sīn	wārīm, wārīmēs
2nd person plural	sīt	wārīt
3rd person plural	sīn	wārīn
imperative	present
singular	wis
plural	wesit
participle	present	past
	wesanti	giwesan

Derived terms

• giwesan (past participle) (in some descendants, the strong -en ending was replaced by the weak -t ending, or elided)
  • Central Franconian: jewäs
  • Cimbrian: gabéest, gebest
  • German: gewesen
  • Hunsrik: gewees, geweest
  • Luxembourgish: gewiescht
  • Pennsylvania German: gewest

Descendants

• Middle High German: wësen
  • Alemannic German: si, sii, siin, sinh, ŝchi

    Swabian:

  • Bavarian: sain

    Cimbrian: sain, soin, zèinan

    Mòcheno: sai'

    Northern Bavarian: [z̥ai̯]

  • Central Franconian: sein, senn, sinn

    Hunsrik: sin

    Luxembourgish: sinn

  • East Central German:

    Erzgebirgisch: [saɪ]

    Upper Saxon German:

    Vilamovian: zajn

  • East Franconian:
  • German: sein (all forms); Wesen
  • Rhine Franconian: sei, senn, sinn

    Frankfurterisch: [sɑ̃ɪ]

    Pennsylvania German: sei

  • Yiddish: זײַן (zayn)

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. The forms in b- derive from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow, become, appear”).

Verb

wesan

1. to be

Conjugation

Conjugation of wesan (irregular, suppletive)

infinitive	wesan
indicative	present	past
1st person singular	bium, biun, bion	was
2nd person singular	bist, bis	*wāri
3rd person singular	ist, is	was
plural	sind, sindun, sindon, sundon	wārun
subjunctive	present	past
1st person singular	sī	wāri
2nd person singular	sīs	wāris
3rd person singular	sī, wese	wāri
plural	sīn	wārin
imperative	present
singular	wes, wis
plural	wesad, wesat, wesath
participle	present	past
	wesandi	giwesan

Synonyms

• sīn (rare infinitive)

Descendants

• Middle Low German: wēsen
  • Dutch Low Saxon: waen
  • German Low German: wesen, ween

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English white sand.

Noun

wesan

1. sand

Related terms

• nambis