ween
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) wene, from (etyl) .
Noun
(
en noun)
(obsolete) Doubt; conjecture.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) wenen, from (etyl) .
Verb
(label) To suppose, imagine; to think, believe.
*:
*: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
*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. (Bible) , (w) VIII:
*:Then sayde Peter unto hym: Perissh thou and thy money togedder. For thou wenest that the gyfte of god maye be obteyned with money?
(label) To expect, hope or wish.
Quotations
*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.
*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.
*1793 , (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), (Christabel) :
*:But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
*:Shall wholly do away, I ween ,
*:The marks of that which once hath been.
*1884 , , (Princess Ida) :
*:Yet humble second shall be first, I ween
*1974 , (Stanislaw Lem), (The Cyberiad) :
*:Klapaucius too, I ween , Will turn the deepest green
*:To hear such flawless verse from Trurl's machine.
Derived terms
* overweening
Etymology 3
Anagrams
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