wesan
Old Dutch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.
Verb
[edit]wesan
- to be
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | wesan, sīn | |
---|---|---|
indicative | present | past |
1st person singular | bim, bin | was |
2nd person singular | bis, bist | wāri |
3rd person singular | is, ist | was |
1st person plural | sīn | wārun |
2nd person plural | sīt | wārut |
3rd person plural | sint, sīn | wārun |
subjunctive | present | past |
1st person singular | sī | wāri |
2nd person singular | sīs, sīst | wāris, wārist |
3rd person singular | sī | wāri |
1st person plural | sīn | wārin |
2nd person plural | sīt | wārit |
3rd person plural | sīn | wārin |
imperative | present | |
singular | wis | |
plural | wisit | |
participle | present | past |
wesandi | giwesan |
Descendants
[edit]- Middle Dutch: wēsen
Further reading
[edit]- “wesan”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012
Old English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.
The simple present forms originate from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”), which had no infinitive or past tense in Proto-Germanic, but had already formed a single paradigm with *wesaną supplying the infinitive and past tense.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]wesan
- to be, exist
- late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of The Consolation of Philosophy
- Þā cwæþ hē, "Wāst þū hwæt mann sīe?" Þā cwæþ iċ, "Iċ wāt þæt hit biþ sāwol and līchama."
- Then he said, "Do you know what a person is?" So I said, "I know it's a soul and a body."
- c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 9:12
- Þā cwǣdon hīe tō him, "Hwǣr is hē?" Þā cwæþ hē, "Iċ nāt."
- Then they said to him, "Where is he?" And he said, "I don't know."
- late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of The Consolation of Philosophy
Usage notes
[edit]- The verbs bēon and wesan both mean to be, but in different circumstances. For most purposes, wesan is used; bēon is used for what is known as the "gnomic present" and the future tense of to be.
- The gnomic present, in short, refers to anything which is a general truth, like Winter biþ ċealdost ("Winter is coldest"), or Fēower sīðum seofon bēoþ eahta and twēntiġ ("Four times seven is (lit. "are") twenty-eight"). Generally, statements about the self will not be gnomic. For example, although it may seem that a statement like I am a person is always true, such a statement is nonetheless rendered with wesan: Iċ eom mann.
- To be is the only verb in Old English for which the future tense may be indicated with morphology instead of adverbs or context clues, and for this purpose, bēon is used. So, I am the king is rendered as Iċ eom sē cyning, but I will be the king is rendered as Iċ bēo sē cyning. Note that bēon is not used for any other verb's future tense; both I see it and I will see it are written as Iċ hit ġesēo.
- Both bēon and wesan share past tense forms.
- Both bēon and wesan are copulative verbs, which means they are not transitive and do not take a direct object. Because of this, predicate nouns and adjectives will be in the nominative case. For example: Hēo is iċ ("She is I"), not *Hēo is mē ("She is me").
- In the Anglian dialects, the present plural indicative form earon occurred alongside the sind/sindon forms. This may have been due to influence or loaning from the Old Norse cognate vera/vesa, or it may be an earlier native form that was lost entirely in the southern dialects.
- A regularised form wesaþ is also rarely attested for the present plural indicative, perhaps representing a hypercorrection due to influence from the infinitive and/or the imperative plural form (the latter being identical to the present plural indicative for most other Old English verbs).
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | wesan | wesenne |
---|---|---|
indicative mood | present tense | past tense |
first person singular | eom | wæs |
second person singular | eart | wǣre |
third person singular | is | wæs |
plural | sind, sindon | wǣron |
subjunctive | present tense | past tense |
singular | sīe | wǣre |
plural | sīen | wǣren |
imperative | ||
singular | wes | |
plural | wesaþ | |
participle | present | past |
wesende | — |
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną (“to consume, feast”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to graze”).[1] The only (possible) attestation is in the form weaxan in line 3115 of Beowulf, argued to be a misspelling of weosan.[2]
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]wesan
Usage notes
[edit]- The precise verb class is unknown. It is shown here according to what would be its etymologically inherited form, a class 5 strong verb.
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | wesan | wesenne |
---|---|---|
indicative mood | present tense | past tense |
first person singular | wese | wæs |
second person singular | wist | wǣre |
third person singular | wist | wæs |
plural | wesaþ | wǣron |
subjunctive | present tense | past tense |
singular | wese | wǣre |
plural | wesen | wǣren |
imperative | ||
singular | wes | |
plural | wesaþ | |
participle | present | past |
wesende | (ġe)weren |
Descendants
[edit]- >? Middle English: wesen (“to tend flocks, pasture”)
Etymology 3
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *wōsijan, from Proto-Germanic *wōsijaną, from *wōsą.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]wēsan
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | wēsan | wēsenne |
---|---|---|
indicative mood | present tense | past tense |
first person singular | wēse | wēsde |
second person singular | wēsest, wēst | wēsdest |
third person singular | wēseþ, wēst | wēsde |
plural | wēsaþ | wēsdon |
subjunctive | present tense | past tense |
singular | wēse | wēsde |
plural | wēsen | wēsden |
imperative | ||
singular | wēs | |
plural | wēsaþ | |
participle | present | past |
wēsende | (ġe)wēsed |
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- John R. Clark Hall (1916) “wesan”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary[2], 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan, page 350
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “wesan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary[3], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
References
[edit]- ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “Wesan- 2”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
- ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970) “WES-A- 2”, in Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben (Janua Linguarum. Series practica; 85) (in German), Paris, Den Haag: Mouton, →ISBN: “562-63”
Old High German
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- sīn (less common infinitive, but became common over time)
Etymology
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.
Verb
[edit]type=irregPlease see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.
wesan
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | wesan | |
---|---|---|
indicative | present | past |
1st person singular | bim, bin | was |
2nd person singular | bist, bis | wāri |
3rd person singular | ist | was |
1st person plural | birum, birun | wārum, wārumēs |
2nd person plural | birut | wārut |
3rd person plural | sint | wārun |
subjunctive | present | past |
1st person singular | sī | wāri |
2nd person singular | sīs, sīst | wārīs, wārīst |
3rd person singular | sī | wāri |
1st person plural | sīn | wārīm, wārīmēs |
2nd person plural | sīt | wārīt |
3rd person plural | sīn | wārīn |
imperative | present | |
singular | wis | |
plural | wesit | |
participle | present | past |
wesanti | giwesan |
Derived terms
[edit]- giwesan (past participle) (in some descendants, the strong -en ending was replaced by the weak -t ending, or elided)
Descendants
[edit]- Middle High German: wësen
- Alemannic German: si, sii, siin, sinh, ŝchi
- Swabian:
- Bavarian: sain
- Cimbrian: sain, soin, zèinan
- Mòcheno: sai'
- Northern Bavarian: [z̥ai̯]
- Central Franconian: sein, senn, sinn
- East Central German:
- Erzgebirgisch: [saɪ]
- Upper Saxon German:
- Vilamovian: zajn
- East Franconian:
- German: sein (all forms); Wesen
- Rhine Franconian: sei, senn, sinn
- Frankfurterisch: [sɑ̃ɪ]
- Pennsylvania German: sei
- Yiddish: זײַן (zayn)
- Alemannic German: si, sii, siin, sinh, ŝchi
Old Saxon
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. The forms in b- derive from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow, become, appear”).
Verb
[edit]wesan
- to be
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | wesan | |
---|---|---|
indicative | present | past |
1st person singular | bium, biun, bion | was |
2nd person singular | bist, bis | *wāri |
3rd person singular | ist, is | was |
plural | sind, sindun, sindon, sundon | wārun |
subjunctive | present | past |
1st person singular | sī | wāri |
2nd person singular | sīs | wāris |
3rd person singular | sī, wese | wāri |
plural | sīn | wārin |
imperative | present | |
singular | wes, wis | |
plural | wesad, wesat, wesath | |
participle | present | past |
wesandi | giwesan |
Synonyms
[edit]- sīn (rare infinitive)
Descendants
[edit]Tok Pisin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]wesan
Related terms
[edit]- Old Dutch terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old Dutch terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old Dutch terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old Dutch terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old Dutch lemmas
- Old Dutch verbs
- Old Dutch irregular verbs
- Old Dutch suppletive verbs
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English non-lemma forms
- Old English verb forms
- Old English terms with quotations
- Old English irregular verbs
- Old English lemmas
- Old English verbs
- Old English class 5 strong verbs
- Old English class 1 weak verbs
- Old English suppletive verbs
- Old High German terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old High German terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old High German terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old High German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old High German terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old High German lemmas
- Old High German verbs
- Old High German irregular verbs
- Old High German suppletive verbs
- Old Saxon terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old Saxon terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old Saxon terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old Saxon terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old Saxon terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old Saxon lemmas
- Old Saxon verbs
- Old Saxon irregular verbs
- Old Saxon suppletive verbs
- Tok Pisin terms derived from English
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns