wen
Translingual
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: wĕn, IPA(key): /wɛn/
- Rhymes: -ɛn
- Homophone: when (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Etymology 1
From Middle English wen, wenne, from Old English wenn, wænn (“wen”), from Proto-Germanic *wanjaz. Cognate with Dutch wen (“goiter”), Low German Ween (“wen”), dialectal German Wenne (“wen”), Danish van, væne.
Noun
wen (plural wens)
- A cyst on the skin; a tumor or wart.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Country Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 220:
- There was a Fellow with a Wen in his Neck, larger than five Woolpacks, and another with a couple of wooden Legs, each about twenty foot high.
- 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Walden:
- When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all--looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck--I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry.
- 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:
- Creeps, foreigners with tinted, oily skin, wens, sties, cysts, wheezes, bad teeth, limps, staring or—worse—with Strange Faraway Smiles.
- 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 4:
- I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen.
Derived terms
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Old English wynn.
Etymology 3
Eye dialect spelling of when.
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch winnen, from Middle Dutch winnen, from Old Dutch winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, desire, wish, love”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /vɛn/
Audio (file)
Belizean Creole
References
- Crosbie, Paul, ed. (2007), Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri: English-Kriol Dictionary. Belize City: Belize Kriol Project, p. 371.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʋɛn/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: wen
- Rhymes: -ɛn
Etymology 1
From Proto-Germanic *hwannē. Cognate with English when, German wann.
Adverb
wen
- (archaic) when
- En ik dacht aan den geur harer bloesems, aan het huiveren harer takken, aan den zang harer vogelen; en ik vroeg mij: wen rieken wij die? (V. Someren, 1822)
- And I thought about the scent of her blossoms, at the shuddering of her branches, at the songs of her birds, and I asked myself: when do we smell these?
- En ik dacht aan den geur harer bloesems, aan het huiveren harer takken, aan den zang harer vogelen; en ik vroeg mij: wen rieken wij die? (V. Someren, 1822)
Conjunction
wen
- (archaic) when
- Daar heb ik wen de vogels vlogen, heimelik in elk nest geschouwd! (L. De Mont, 1880)
- There have I, when the birds flew, looked privily in each nest!
- Daar heb ik wen de vogels vlogen, heimelik in elk nest geschouwd! (L. De Mont, 1880)
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [veːn]
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -eːn
Pronoun
wen
Gothic
Ilocano
Jamaican Creole
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /wen/
Adverb
wen
- when
- 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, Matyu 23:7:
- Dem lov wen piipl gi dem speshal oudi wen dem go a maakit, an wen dem kaal dem, 'Tiicha'.
- They love [when] people to greet them with respect [when] in the marketplaces, and they love to have people call them 'Teacher'.
Further reading
- wen at majstro.com
Mandarin
Romanization
wen
Usage notes
- Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Middle English
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *wēniz, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“love”). Cognate with Old Frisian wen, Old Saxon wan, Old High German wān (German Wahn (“delusion”)), Old Norse ván, Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌽𐍃 (wēns).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /weːn/
Noun
wēn f
- expectation
- likelihood
- (poetic) hope
- probability
- c. 992, Ælfric, "The Octaves and Circumcision of our Lord"
- Wēn is þæt eower sum nyte hwæt sy ymbsnidennys.
- It is probable that some of you know not what circumcision is.
- 1000. West Saxon Gospels (John, xvii. 26). Ic him cyðde ðinne naman & gyt wylle cyþan.
- c. 992, Ælfric, "The Octaves and Circumcision of our Lord"
Declension
Old Polish
Alternative forms
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vъ́nъ.
Adverb
wen
Derived terms
- zewność
- zewna