ween

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wiːn/
• Homophones: wean
• Rhymes: -iːn

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English wene, from Old English wēn, wēna (“hope, weening, expectation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāni, from Proto-Germanic *wēniz, *wēnǭ (“hope, expectation”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, love, want, reach, win”). Cognate with Dutch waan (“delusion”), Afrikaans waan (“delusion”), German Wahn (“illusion, false hope”).

Noun

ween (plural weens)

1. (obsolete) Doubt; conjecture.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wenen, from Old English wēnan, from Proto-Germanic *wēnijaną. Cognate with Dutch wanen, German wähnen.

Verb

ween (third-person singular simple present weens, present participle weening, simple past weened or (obsolete) wende or (obsolete) wente, past participle weened or (obsolete) wend or (obsolete) went)

1. (archaic) To suppose, imagine; to think, believe.
   • 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.

   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “viij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:

     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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

     Then sayde Peter unto hym: Perissh thou and thy money togedder. For thou wenest that the gyfte of god maye be obteyned with money?

   • 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.

   • 1816, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “(please specify the page)”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: John Murray, , by William Bulmer and Co. , →OCLC:

     But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
     Shall wholly do away, I ween,
     The marks of that which once hath been.

   • 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “When I was a lad”, in H.M.S. Pinafore;  , San Francisco: Bacon & Company,  , →OCLC:

     And that junior partnership, I ween, Was the only ship that I ever had seen.

   • 1884, W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida:

     Yet humble second shall be first, I ween

   • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XVIII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:

     Little ween the snug card-players in the cabin of the responsibilities of the sleepless man on the bridge.

   • 1974, Stanisław Lem, translated by Michael Kandel, The Cyberiad:

     Klapaucius too, I ween,
     Will turn the deepest green
     To hear such flawless verse from Trurl’s machine.

2. (dated) To expect, hope or wish.

Derived terms

• overween
• underween

Etymology 3

From Middle English weinen (“to wail, lament”), from Old English wānian (“to bewail, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *wainōną (“to cry, lament, grieve”). Cognate with Dutch wenen (“to weep, cry”), German weinen (“to weep, cry”), Icelandic veina (“to wail, cry out”), West Frisian weine (“to weep, cry”).

Verb

ween (third-person singular simple present weens, present participle weening, simple past and past participle weened)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) To weep or cry.

   The boy's mother weened day and night.

2. (obsolete) To lament.

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 4

Verb

ween

1. Misspelling of wean.

Etymology 5

Abbreviation of wiener dog

Noun

ween (plural weens)

1. (slang) wiener dog, dachshund

Etymology 6

Abbreviation of wiener (penis)

Noun

ween (plural weens)

1. (slang) penis

Anagrams

• Ewen, enew, newe

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːn

Verb

ween

1. inflection of wenen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Anagrams

• wene

Low German

Verb

ween

1. Alternative spelling of wesen

North Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

ween

1. blue

Wolof

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

ween (definite form ween wi)

1. breast