wan

See also: Appendix:Variations of "wan"

Languages (31)

Translingual • English

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Ainu • Atong (India) • Bislama • Daungwurrung • Dutch • Fanagalo • Gilbertese • Gothic • Hunsrik • Indonesian • Jamaican Creole • Japanese • Jingpho • Mandarin • Maranao • Middle English • Nigerian Pidgin • Noone • North Frisian • Old Dutch • Old English • Old Javanese • Ottawa • Pipil • Scots • Sranan Tongo • Tok Pisin • Woiwurrung • Wutunhua

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Page categories

Translingual

Etymology

From English Wan.

Symbol

wan

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Wan.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Wan terms

English

WOTD – 27 March 2018

Etymology 1

A wan moon (sense 1) rising over snow-covered mountains

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *wannaz

Proto-West Germanic *wann

Old English wann

Middle English wan

English wan

From Middle English wan, wanne (“grey, leaden; pale grey, ashen; blue-black (like a bruise); dim, faint; dark, gloomy”), from Old English wann (“dark, dusky”), from Proto-Germanic *wannaz (“dark, swart”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Old Frisian wann, wonn (“dark”). The meaning and sense has been attributed to influence from Proto-Brythonic, Proto-Celtic *wasnos (cf. Welsh gwan. Irish fann).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɒn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɑn/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /wæn/
• Rhymes: -ɒn
• Homophones: one (for speakers who pronounce that word as /wɒn/), won (etymologies 2 and 3)

Adjective

wan (comparative wanner, superlative wannest)

1. Pale, sickly-looking.

   Synonyms: ashen, pasty; see also Thesaurus:pallid

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42, page 116:

     Whome when his Lady ſaw, to him ſhe ran / With haſty ioy : to ſee him made her glad, / And ſad to view his viſage pale and wan, / Who earſt in flowres of freſhest youth was clad.

   • 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Beleaguered City”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanzas 1–2, page 22:

     I have read in some old marvellous tale, / Some legend strange and vague, / That a midnight host of spectres pale / Beleaguered the walls of Prague. // Beside the Moldau’s rushing stream, / With the wan moon overhead, / There stood, as in an awful dream, / The army of the dead.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Blanche smiled languidly out upon the young men, thinking whether she looked very wan and green under her rose-coloured hood, and whether it was the mirrors at Gaunt House, or the fatigue and fever of her own eyes, which made her fancy herself so pale.

   • 1892, Joaquin Miller, Columbus:

     BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’”
     “My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak.” / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. // “What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, / If we sight naught but seas at dawn?” / “Why, you shall say at break of day, / ‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’”
     They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, / Until at last the blanched mate said: / “Why, now not even God would know / Should I and all my men fall dead. // These very winds forget their way, / For God from these dread seas is gone. / Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say”— / He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
     They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: / “This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. / He curls his lip, he lies in wait, / With lifted teeth, as if to bite! // Brave Admiral, say but one good word: / What shall we do when hope is gone?” / The words leapt like a leaping sword: / “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
     Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, / And peered through darkness. Ah, that night / Of all dark nights! And then a speck— / A light! A light! A light! A light! // It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! / It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. / He gained a world; he gave that world / Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”

   • 1921 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Efficiency Expert”, in All-Story Weekly, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “The Trial”, in The Efficiency Expert, [Auckland]: The Floating Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 188:

     She looked wan and worried, and then finally she was not in court one day, and later [...] he learned that she was confined to her room with a bad cold.

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 24:

     Big fair wan lovely pale-freckled Kathleen with that buoyant bust gave kindly smiles but mostly she was silent.

   • 2020, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, page 45:

     Instead, you wiped off the red lipstick with wadded-up toilet paper and forced a smile, leaving the locker room with a pale, cotton candy-colored lipstick that made you look wan and parched instead.

2. Dim, faint.

   Synonyms: dull, dun, leaden, uncolorful; see also Thesaurus:dim

   Antonyms: colorful, colorific, coloury; see also Thesaurus:multicolored

   • 1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Ballad of One-eyed Mike”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 52:

     ’Twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed the Prince of Gloom / For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom. / Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago; / My youth was gone and my memory wan, and I willed it even so.

3. Bland, uninterested.

   Synonyms: insipid, lackluster; see also Thesaurus:boring

   A wan expression

   • 1867 July 13, “Lieutenant Castagnac”, in Every Saturday: A Journal of Choice Reading, Selected from Foreign Current Literature, volume IV, number 80, Cambridge, Mass.: Printed at the University Press, Cambridge, by Welch, Bigelow, & Co., for Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, chapter II, page 35:

     My position in the midst of the general indifference was hard to bear ; my silence weighed upon me like remorse. The sight of Lieutenant Castagnac filled me with indignation, — a sort of insurmountable repulsion: the wan look, the ironical smile of the man, froze my blood.

   • 2013, Carter Dreyfuss, chapter 1, in The Prince of Temple Square: A Murder Mystery, Tucson, Ariz.: Wheatmark, →ISBN, pages 8–9:

     Checking out her brother’s khakis, the gun propped in the corner, Olivia’s hiking boots and her wan expression, she wants to laugh. “Been hunting, I see.” Olivia’s face falls, as expected. Her brother’s obsession with guns and gross little expeditions appall her.

   • 2014, Chris Angus, chapter 12, in Flypaper: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Yucca Publishing, Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:

     “I have to admit, I’ve been tempted a time or two to chuck everything to go live in a place like this [Bogda Peak, China],” he replied. / “What stopped you?” / He gave her a wan look. “Celibacy.”

   • 2026 September 11, Marina Hyde, “Memo to King Charles: you can’t stop the Sussexes’ reality show bandwagon. You only spice up the script”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     It does all rather reinforce the idea that the Windsors’ cringe-makingly self-styled “the firm” really is some dreary mid-range company with a wan Meet Our Team page on its website, in which Prince William – carefully photographed without a tie – explains that he “enjoys long walks with the dog and is a passionate Aston Villa supporter”.

Derived terms

• green and wan
• wanly
• wanned
• wanness
• wannish
• wanthriven
• wanwood

Translations

pale, sickly-looking

• Belarusian: бле́дны m (bljédny)
• Bulgarian: блед (bg) (bled), болнав (bg) (bolnav)
• Czech: bledý (cs), pobledlý, sinalý (cs)
• Dutch: bleek (nl)
• Esperanto: pala (eo)
• Finnish: kelmeä (fi), kalmea, riutunut (fi)
• French: blême (fr), pâlot (fr), pâlotte (fr)
• Galician: cadavérico (gl) m
• German: fahl (de), matt (de)
• Greek: ωχρός (el) (ochrós)

  Ancient Greek: ὠχρός (ōkhrós)

• Hungarian: sápadt (hu)
• Icelandic: fölur (is)
• Italian: cereo (it) m, cadaverico (it) m, smunto (it) m
• Japanese: 青ざめた (aozameta)
• Latin: exsanguis
• Persian: رنگ‌پریده (fa) (rang-paride)
• Plautdietsch: blauss
• Portuguese: cadavérico (pt)
• Russian: бле́дный (ru) m (blédnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: bàn-ghlas
• Sicilian: giarnu (scn) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: płowy

• Spanish: palidez (es)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: صاری (sarı)

• Ukrainian: блідий (uk) m (blidyj)

dim, faint

• Bulgarian: замъглен (bg) (zamăglen)
• Czech: slabý (cs), mdlý (cs)
• Dutch: vaal (nl)
• Finnish: kelmeä (fi)
• French: blafard (fr), blafarde (fr) (of a light, for example)
• German: fahl (de), matt (de)
• Hungarian: halvány (hu)
• Italian: fioco (it) m, fioca (it) f
• Latvian: blāvs, nespodrs
• Sicilian: scarsu (scn) m
• Spanish: flaqueza (es)

bland, uninterested

• Czech: mdlý (cs), nevýrazný
• Finnish: vaisu (fi)
• French: indifférent (fr) m, indifférente (fr) f
• Spanish: indiferente (es)

Noun

wan (uncountable)

1. The quality of being wan; wanness.

   Synonyms: achromatism, decolouration, paleness, pallidity, pallor

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 47:

     And while we stood beside the fount, and watch’d / Or seem’d to watch the dancing bubble, approach'd / Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep, / Or sorrow, and glowing round her dewy eyes / The circled Iris of a night of tears ; [...]

Etymology 2

Eye dialect spelling of one. Sense 2 (“girl or woman”) possibly as a result of the phrase your wan as a counterpart to your man.

Noun

wan (plural wans)

1. Pronunciation spelling of one, representing Ireland and Glasgow English.
2. (Ireland) A girl or woman.

   Synonyms: lass, maid; see also Thesaurus:girl, Thesaurus:woman

   • 1993, Elaine Crowley, The Ways Of Women, London: Orion, →ISBN:

     Then I’d tell myself there were plenty of oul wans and oul fellas in work who never got it and that I’d be lucky like them and escape. Only I didn’t. I don’t want to die.

   • 2005, David McWilliams, The Pope’s Children: Ireland’s New Elite, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, →ISBN; republished as The Pope’s Children: The Irish Economic Triumph and the Rise of Ireland’s New Elite, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2008, →ISBN, page 4:

     Growing up in Dún Laoghaire in the 1980s, I remember all the hard men were sinewy, scrawny lads, hence the local description ‘more meat on a seagull’. The reason was simple: they were undernourished. [...] The young wans, despite a couple of babies, were more or less the same, pinched, flat-chested and drawn.

   • 2015, Kevin Maher, “A Yuletide Bender”, in Last Night on Earth, London: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:

     He comes streaming out from under the stage, this time a feckin show-stopper, almost literally, because there’s eighty different acrobats above him, [...] for this mad New Year’s show that has no story at all, other than this wan in silky robes who goes out with this fella in silky robes, and they’re from different enemy tribes of lads and wans in silky robes, and when they find out, they have this huge, aerial, acrobatic donnybrook that ends when everyone wraps their silk around each other up in the air, and then lets it all fall down to the ground, where the audience are, to show them how we're all part of one big silky family, and not to be fighting in the future.

Derived terms

• cubewano

Etymology 3

An inflected form.

Verb

wan

1. (obsolete) simple past of win.

Anagrams

• NWA, awn, naw

Ainu

Ainu cardinal numbers

<  9	10	11  >
Cardinal : wan     Ordinal : wan ikinne

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wán/

Numeral

wan (Kana spelling ワン)

1. ten

Atong (India)

Etymology

From English one.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan/

Numeral

wan (Bengali script ৱান)

1. one

Synonyms

• sa
• rongsa
• eek

References

• van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 2.

Bislama

Bislama numbers ^(edit)

		10
		1	2  →	10  →
Cardinal: wan

Etymology

From English one.

Numeral

wan

1. one

Daungwurrung

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan/

Pronoun

wan

1. I

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋɑn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wan
• Rhymes: -ɑn

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch wan, wanne, Old Dutch *wanna, from Proto-West Germanic *wannu, from Latin vannus.

Noun

wan f or m (plural wannen, diminutive wannetje n)

1. winnowing basket

Related terms

• wannen

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

wan

1. inflection of wannen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Fanagalo

Etymology

Borrowed from English one.

Numeral

wan

1. one

Gilbertese

Gilbertese numbers ^(edit)

←  7	8	9  →
Cardinal: wan

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *walu, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *walu, from Proto-Austronesian *walu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan/

Numeral

wan

1. eight

References

• Bingham, Hiram; Sabatier, Father Ernest with Luomala, Goo, and Banner (1978–), “wan”, in Trussel, Stephen, Groves, Gordon W., compilers, A Combined Kiribati–English Online Dictionary‎^[3]

Gothic

Romanization

wan

1. romanization of 𐍅𐌰𐌽

Hunsrik

Adverb

wan (Wiesemann spelling)

1. alternative spelling of wann

Indonesian

Alternative forms

• uan

Etymology

Clipping of tuan

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈwan/ [ˈwan]
• Rhymes: -an
• Syllabification: wan
• Homophones: -wan, WAN

Noun

wan

1. (dialectal) sir

Further reading

• “wan”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Jamaican Creole

Jamaican Creole numbers ^(edit)

		10
		1	2  →	10  →
Cardinal: wan     Ordinal: fos

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ís?

Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos

Proto-Germanic *ainaz

Proto-West Germanic *ain

Old English ān

Middle English on

English one

Jamaican Creole wan

Inherited from English one.

Pronunciation 1

• IPA^(key): /wãn/

Numeral

wan

1. one
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 2:5:

     Kaaz a onggl wan Gad de bout, an Jiizas Krais a di migl man, di onggl wan we kyan bring Gad an piipl tugeda.

     For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Pronunciation 2

• IPA^(key): /wã/

Article

wan

1. a, an (indefinite article)
   • 2012, Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, Edinburgh: DJB, published 2012, →ISBN, 4:9:

     So nou, di Samaritan uman se tu Jiizas se, “Yu a wan Juu an mi a wan Samaritan uman. […]

     he Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? […]

Alternative forms

• wahn

Further reading

• wan at majstro.com
• “A Learner’s Grammar of Jamaican”, in Open Grammar Project‎^[4], 2015, Glossary‎^[5]

Japanese

Romanization

wan

1. Rōmaji transcription of わん
2. Rōmaji transcription of ワン

Jingpho

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bʷar ~ *pʷar (“burn; fire; kindle; roast”) (STEDT).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan˧˩/

Noun

wan

1. fire
2. lamp; light; lantern

Derived terms

• wan ga
• wan hkut
• wan htung
• wan kra
• wan mang
• wan numli
• wan shanan
• wan shinglet
• wan wawn
• wan wu
• wan wut

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Mandarin 碗 (wǎn, “bowl”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan˧˧/

Noun

wan

1. bowl

Classifier

wan

1. Classifier for the quantity of a bowl: bowlful

References

• Xu, Xijian (徐悉艰); Xiao, Jiacheng (肖家成); Yue, Xiangkun (岳相昆); Dai, Qingxia (戴庆厦) (December 1983), “wan”, in 景汉辞典 [Jingpho-Chinese Dictionary], Kunming: Yunnan Nationalities Publishing House, pages 868-869

Mandarin

Romanization

wan

1. nonstandard spelling of wān
2. nonstandard spelling of wán
3. nonstandard spelling of wǎn
4. nonstandard spelling of wàn

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.

Maranao

Verb

wan

1. to fear

References

• Howard P. McKaughan, Batua A. Macaraya (1967), A Maranao Dictionary‎^[6] (overall work in Maranao and English), University of Hawaii Press

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English wann (“dark”), from Proto-West Germanic *wann, from Proto-Germanic *wannaz, of uncertain origin.

Alternative forms

• wane, wanne
• won, wonne, wone (West Midland)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan/
• IPA^(key): /wɔn/ (West Midland)

Adjective

wan

1. wan (pallid, sickly)
2. wan (dim, faint)

Derived terms

• wannesse

Descendants

• English: wan
• Scots: wan

References

• “wan, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

wan

1. alternative form of wane (“deprivation”)

Etymology 3

Adjective

wan

1. alternative form of wane

Etymology 4

Noun

wan

1. (Northern) alternative form of vein (“that which is vain”)

Etymology 5

Pronoun

wan

1. alternative form of whan

Etymology 6

Noun

wan

1. (Northern, Early Middle English) alternative form of wone (“dwelling”)

Etymology 7

Noun

wan

1. alternative form of wane (“woeful state”)

Etymology 8

Noun

wan

1. alternative form of wone (“choice”)

Etymology 9

Noun

wan

1. alternative form of wayn (“wagon”)

Etymology 10

Verb

wan

1. alternative form of wanen

Etymology 11

Adverb

wan

1. alternative form of whenne

Conjunction

wan

1. alternative form of whenne

Etymology 12

Adverb

wan

1. alternative form of whanne

Conjunction

wan

1. alternative form of whanne

Etymology 13

Verb

wan

1. alternative form of wanne: singular simple past of winnen
2. alternative form of wonnen: plural simple past of winnen

Nigerian Pidgin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *wanatōną

Old Norse vantabor.

Middle English wanten

English want

Nigerian Pidgin wan

Inherited from English want.

Verb

wan

1. want, want to
   • 2018 October 23, “'I wan get pikin but I no wan nack'”, in BBC News Pidgin‎^[7], archived from the original on 25 February 2025:

     E tok say, "I still dey feel pipo wella, like romantically, I still fit say dis girl fine, but e no go reach my brain to di point say I wan nack dis babe."

     He said, "I still have strong feelings for people, like romantically. I can still say that this girl is beautiful, but it won't get to my head to the point where I want to have sex with her."

Noone

Noun

wan (plural boom)

1. child

References

• R. Blench, Beboid Comparative

North Frisian

Alternative forms

• wane, wine, wune (Mooring)
• wen (Sylt)

Etymology

From Old Frisian winna, from Proto-West Germanic *winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną (“to gain, win”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to love”).

Pronunciation

• (Föhr-Amrum) IPA^(key): [van]

Verb

wan

1. (Föhr-Amrum) to win

Conjugation

Conjugation of wan (Föhr-Amrum dialect)

infinitive I	wan
infinitive II	(tu) wanen
past participle	wonen
imperative singular	wan
imperative plural	wan’m
	present	past
1st singular	wan	woon
2nd singular	wanst	woonst
3rd singular	want	woon
plural	wan	woon
	perfect	pluperfect
1st singular	haa wonen	hed wonen
2nd singular	heest wonen	hedst wonen
3rd singular	hee wonen	hed wonen
plural	haa wonen	hed wonen
	future (skel)	future (wel)
1st singular	skal wan	wal wan
2nd singular	skääl wan	wääl wan
3rd singular	skal wan	wal wan
plural	skel wan	wel wan

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wāni, from Proto-Germanic *wēniz.

Noun

wān m

1. hope, expectation

Inflection

Declension of wān (masculine i-stem noun)

case	singular	plural
nominative	wān	wāni
accusative	wān	wāni
genitive	wānis	wāno
dative	wāni	wānin, wānon

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: wâen
  • Dutch: waan
    • Afrikaans: waan
  • Limburgish: waan

References

• “wān”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old English

Alternative forms

• wann

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɑn/
• Rhymes: -ɑn

Verb

wan

1. third-person singular of winnan

   Grendel wan hwile wið Hroþgar. ― Grendel long fought against Hrothgar. (Beowulf ll. 151-2)

Old Javanese

Etymology

Unknown, probably hwa, ho; -an, probably Inherited from Proto-Austronesian *hawan (“atmosphere, space between earth and sky”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan/
• Rhymes: -wan

Root

wan

1. clear,
2. plain
3. certain
4. fixed.
5. herd.

Alternative forms

• *hwan
• *on

Derived terms

• aṅhwan
• aṅon
• hinwan
• hwanan
• iṅon
• mahwan
• paṅhwanan

• kwan
• takwan
• wĕnaṅ

Further reading

• "wan" in P.J. Zoetmulder with the collaboration of S.O. Robson, Old Javanese-English Dictionary. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1982.

Ottawa

Verb

wan (inanimate intransitive)

1. (impersonal) be foggy

References

Jerry Randolph Valentine (2001), Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar, University of Toronto, page 254

Pipil

Pronunciation

• (standard) IPA^(key): /waŋ/

Noun

-wan

1. with, in relation to

   Shiwi nuwan wan niweli nimetzilwitia ne nukal yankwik

   Come with me and I can show you my new house

Declension

Declension of -wan

	singular	plural
first person	nuwan	tuwan
second person	muwan	anmuwan
third person	iwan	inwan

Conjunction

wan

1. and, but

   Shinechmaka yey pula wan chikwasen tumat

   Give me three plantains and six tomatoes

   Nikilwij ma timuitakan yalua wan inte walajsik

   I told her/him to meet yesterday but she/he didn't come

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wan/, /wɑn/

Numeral

wan

1. (West Central Scots, Orkney) one

Sranan Tongo

Etymology 1

From English one.

Number

wan

1. one
   • 1968, R. Dobru, “wan [One]”, in Shrinivási, editor, Wortoe d'e tan abra. Bloemlezing uit de Surinaamse poëzie vanaf 1957 [Words that remain. Anthology of Surinamese poetry since 1957]‎^[8], Paramaribo: Bureau Volkslektuur, published 1970, page 48:

     Wan Sranan / someni wiwiri / someni skin / someni tongo / Wan pipel.

     One Suriname / so many hair [types] / so many skin [colours] / so many tongues / One people.

Article

wan

1. Placed before a singular noun, indicating a general case of a person or thing: a, an
   • c. 1970, Michaël Slory, “Dungru worku broko a faja gi mi: wan fresko mamanten”, in Fri-kontren-sma‎^[9], page 9:

     Mi o gwe go suku wan tra sortu libi now.

     I'll go away now, to look for a different kind of life.

Descendants

• Saramaccan: wã́

Etymology 2

Verb

wan

1. contraction of wani

Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin numbers ^(edit)

		10
		1	2  →	10  →
Cardinal: wan

Etymology

From English one.

Noun

wan

1. The number one.
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 1:5:

     Tulait em i kolim “De,” na tudak em i kolim “Nait.” Nait i go pinis na moning i kamap. Em i de namba wan.

     Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Numeral

wan

1. One. Used with units of measurement and in times: wan aua, wan klok. See also wanpela.

Coordinate terms

Tok Pisin cardinal numbers from 1 to 99

	—0	—1	—2	—3	—4	—5	—6	—7	—8	—9
0—	—	wan	tu	tri	foa	faiv	sikis	seven	et	nain
10—	ten	eleven	twelv	tetin	fotin	fiftin	sikistin	seventin	etin	naintin
20—	twenti	tupela ten wan	tupela ten tu	tupela ten tri	tupela ten foa	tupela ten faiv	tupela ten sikis	tupela ten seven	tupela ten et	tupela ten nain
30—	teti	tripela ten wan	tripela ten tu	tripela ten tri	tripela ten foa	tripela ten faiv	tripela ten sikis	tripela ten seven	tripela ten et	tripela ten nain
40—	foti	fopela ten wan	fopela ten tu	fopela ten tri	fopela ten foa	fopela ten faiv	fopela ten sikis	fopela ten seven	fopela ten et	fopela ten nain
50—	fifti	faivpela ten wan	faivpela ten tu	faivpela ten tri	faivpela ten foa	faivpela ten faiv	faivpela ten sikis	faivpela ten seven	faivpela ten et	faivpela ten nain
60—	sikisti	sikispela ten wan	sikispela ten tu	sikispela ten tri	sikispela ten foa	sikispela ten faiv	sikispela ten sikis	sikispela ten seven	sikispela ten et	sikispela ten nain
70—	seventi	sevenpela ten wan	sevenpela ten tu	sevenpela ten tri	sevenpela ten foa	sevenpela ten faiv	sevenpela ten sikis	sevenpela ten seven	sevenpela ten et	sevenpela ten nain
80—	eti	etpela ten wan	etpela ten tu	etpela ten tri	etpela ten foa	etpela ten faiv	etpela ten sikis	etpela ten seven	etpela ten et	etpela ten nain
90—	nainti	nainpela ten wan	nainpela ten tu	nainpela ten tri	nainpela ten foa	nainpela ten faiv	nainpela ten sikis	nainpela ten seven	nainpela ten et	nainpela ten nain

Derived terms

• wanbel
• wanblut
• wande
• wanhaus
• wankain
• wanlain
• wanmak
• wanpela
• wanpes
• wanpilai
• wanpisin
• wanples
• wanskul
• wantaim
• wantok
• wantu
• wanwan
• wanwande
• wanwok

Woiwurrung

Alternative forms

• wán
• wâr

Pronoun

wan

1. myself
2. thy
3. I

See also

• maRambik (“I”)
• wat (“we”)
• wy (“us”)
• warr (“you”)
• maRambinheR (“you”)

Wutunhua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [wɛ̃]

Etymology 1

From Mandarin 玩 (wán).

Verb

wan

1. to play

Etymology 2

From Mandarin 碗 (wǎn).

Noun

wan

1. bowl

   ngu wan da-pe-lio.

   I broke a bowl.

   (Quoted in Sandman, p. 93)

References

• Erika Sandman (2016), A Grammar of Wutun‎^[10], University of Helsinki (PhD), →ISBN