wen

See also: Wen, weń, wên, wēn, wén, wěn, and wèn

Translingual

Symbol

wen

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-5 language code for Sorbian languages.

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)

1. 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. […], 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.

Translations

a cyst on the skin

• Bulgarian: липома f (lipoma)
• Finnish: rakkula (fi), rakko (fi), kysta (fi)
• French: loupe (fr) f
• Irish: goirín m, ainglis f (familiar), cist gheire f
• Italian: natta (it) f
• Korean: 혹 (ko) (hok)
• Plautdietsch: Knubbel m
• Russian: жирови́к (ru) m (žirovík)
• Tagalog: butlig

Etymology 2

From Old English wynn.

Noun

wen (plural wens)

1. Obsolete form of wynn (“the letter ƿ”).

Etymology 3

Eye dialect spelling of when.

Adverb

wen (not comparable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Conjunction

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Pronoun

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Noun

wen (uncountable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Anagrams

• New, new, new-

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)

Verb

wen (present wen, present participle wennende, past participle gewen)

1. to win

Belizean Creole

Conjunction

wen

1. when

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

1. (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?

Conjunction

wen

1. (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!

Etymology 2

Verb

wen

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

Elfdalian

Etymology

From Old Norse hvern.

Pronoun

wen

1. what

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [veːn]

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːn

Pronoun

wen

1. (interrogative) accusative of wer: whom (direct object).

   Wen hast du gefragt?

   Whom did you ask?

Further reading

• “wen” in Duden online
• “wen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Gothic

Romanization

wēn

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌴𐌽

Ilocano

Particle

wen

1. yes

Japanese

Romanization

wen

1. Rōmaji transcription of ゑん

Mandarin

Romanization

wen

1. Nonstandard spelling of wēn.
2. Nonstandard spelling of wén.
3. Nonstandard spelling of wěn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of wèn.

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

Etymology 1

Noun

wen

1. Alternative form of wayn (“wagon”)

Etymology 2

Noun

wen (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of wynne (“happiness”)

Etymology 3

Verb

wen

1. (Northern) Alternative form of winnen (“to win”)

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

1. expectation
2. likelihood
3. (poetic) hope
4. 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.

Declension

Declension of wen (strong i-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	wēn	wēne, wēna
accusative	wēn, wēne	wēne, wēna
genitive	wēne	wēna
dative	wēne	wēnum

Descendants

• Middle English: wene, wen
  • English: ween
  • Scots: wen, wene

Old Polish

Alternative forms

• wan

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vъ́nъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /vɛn/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /vɛn/

Adverb

wen

1. outdoors, outside

   Synonyms: na dwór, procza

   Antonym: wnątrz

   • Jiż mie widzieli, wen uciekali ode mnie.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

noun

• zewność

 

adverb

• zewna

 

Welsh

Adjective

wen

1. Soft mutation of gwen (“white (feminine)”).

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
gwen	wen	ngwen	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.