Ween vs Wane - What's the difference?
ween | wane |
(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.
A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
* 1853 , , "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories'', New York: Penguin, 1968; reprinted 1995 as ''Bartleby , ISBN 0146000129, p. 3,
* 1913 , Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia , "",
The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes less visible from Earth.
* 1926 , ",
(literary) The end of a period.
* 1845 , ,
(woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
* 2002 , Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures ,
(label) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
* Sir (Josiah Child) (1630-1699)
* 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) , :
* 1902 , (John Masefield), "":
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title=
, passage=And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties?; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].}}
(label) Said of light that dims or diminishes in strength.
* 1894 , (Algernon Charles Swinburne), :
Said of the Moon as it passes through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
* 1866 , (Sabine Baring-Gould), Curious Myths of the Middle Ages , "":
(label) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
* 1894 , (Algernon Charles Swinburne), "":
To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
* 1815 , (Walter Scott), (Guy Mannering) , chapter XIX:
* {{quote-web, date=2012-08-30, author=Ann Gibbons, site=Science Now
, title= To cause to decrease.
* 1797 , (Anna Seward),
As nouns the difference between ween and wane
is that ween is (obsolete) doubt; conjecture while wane is a gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc or wane can be (scotland|slang) a child or wane can be (chiefly|northern england|and|scotland|obsolete) a house or dwelling.As verbs the difference between ween and wane
is that ween is (label) to suppose, imagine; to think, believe or ween can be while wane is (label) to progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc; to decline.ween
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) wene, from (etyl) .Etymology 2
From (etyl) wenen, from (etyl) .Verb
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
* overweeningEtymology 3
Anagrams
* * ----wane
English
Etymology 1
The noun is derived from (etyl) ("-ig" being a derivatem suffix, "-er" the suffix of comparatives).Noun
(en noun)- In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian -- his dinner hour -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing -- but, as it were, with a gradual wane -- till six o'clock, PM, or thereabouts; after which, I saw no more of the proprietor of the face, [...].
- His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
- It was very dark, for although the sky was clear the moon was now well in the wane , and would not rise till the small hours.
- The situation of the Venetian party in the wane of the eighteenth century had become extremely critical.
p. 11,
- Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane , or missing timber.
Synonyms
* decrease, declineUsage notes
* When referring to the moon or a time period, the word is found mostly in prepositional phrases like (term) or (term).Verb
(wan)- You saw but sorrow in its waning form.
- Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
- I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, down, to dumbest dust.
- And in the cool twilight when the sea-winds wane
“Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./1/1
- The skies may hold not the splendour of sundown fast; / It wanes into twilight as dawn dies down into day.
- The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes .
- Fast as autumn days toward winter: yet it seems//Here that autumn wanes not, here that woods and streams
- The snow which had been for some time waning , had given way entirely under the fresh gale of the preceding night.
Genome Brings Ancient Girl to Life, accessdate=2012-09-04 , passage=Denisovans had little genetic diversity, suggesting that their small population waned further as populations of modern humans expanded.}}
- (Ben Jonson)
Letter to Mrs Childers of Yorkshire:
- Proud once and princely was the mansion, ere a succession of spendthrifts waned away its splendour.