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wusc. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
wusc, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
wusc in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
wusc you have here. The definition of the word
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Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *wunskaz. Cognate with Old High German wunsc, Old Norse ósk.
Pronunciation
Noun
wūsc m
- wish
- choice
Usage notes
- The declension table below shows the inherited distribution of *sk according to Ringe: "medially *sk was apparently palatalized unless a back vowel followed; finally it was palatalized unless a back vowel preceded." However, in a word like wūsc the distribution could have been leveled in either direction by the literary period, as it is not nearly as simple as in words like disċ (“dish”) where it would have been neatly divided between singular and plural. In the case of the rhyming word tūsc, it was leveled at least by the Middle English period, producing Modern English tusk as well as Middle English and dialectical Modern English tush. Note that the modern noun wish is derived from the (much more frequent) verb and so does not provide evidence either way.
Declension
Declension of wusc (strong a-stem)
Derived terms
References
- ^ Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 204