wend
English
Etymology
From Middle English wenden, from Old English wendan (“to turn, direct, wend one’s way, go, return, change, alter, vary, restore, happen, convert, translate”), from Proto-Germanic *wandijaną (“to turn”), causative of Proto-Germanic *windaną (“to wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, wind, braid”). Cognate with Dutch wenden (“to turn”), German wenden (“to turn, reverse”), Danish vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Bokmål vende (“to turn”), Norwegian Nynorsk venda (“to turn”), Swedish vända (“to turn, turn over, veer, direct”), Icelandic venda (“to wend, turn, change”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wandjan, “to cause to turn”). Related to wind (Etymology 2).
Pronunciation
- (UK, General American) IPA(key): /wɛnd/
- Rhymes: -ɛnd
Verb
wend (third-person singular simple present wends, present participle wending, simple past and past participle wended or (archaic) went)
- (transitive, obsolete) To turn; change.
- (transitive) To direct (one's way or course); pursue one's way; proceed upon some course or way.
- We wended our weary way westward.
- Surrey
- Great voyages to wend.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To turn; make a turn; go round; veer.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Raleigh to this entry?)
- (intransitive, obsolete) To pass away; disappear; depart; vanish.
Usage notes
The modern past tense of wend is wended. Originally it was went, similarly to pairs such as send/sent, spend/spent, lend/lent, rend/rent, or blend/blent. However, went was co-opted as the past tense of go (replacing Early Modern English yede, Middle English yeed, Old English eode) and using it as the past tense of wend is now considered archaic.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
Noun
wend (plural wends)
Alemannic German
Etymology
From Old High German wint, from Proto-Germanic *windaz. Cognate with German Wind, Dutch wind, English wind, Icelandic vindur, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌳𐍃 (winds).
References
- “wend” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ʋɛnt]
Audio (file)