wægn

Forms

wæġn m (strong a-stem; genitive singular wæġnes, nominative plural wæġnas)^[1] Also wæġen and, with the ġ lost before n, wǣn, the form of the Beowulf manuscript.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz (“wagon”).^[1][5] The noun survives in Old Norse vagn, Old Frisian wein, Old Saxon wagan, Old High German wagan and Dutch wagen.^[5][6][7]

Kroonen explains it as a noun in *-no- from the root Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to carry, transport”), the root of the strong verb wegan.^[5][7] Orel compares the formation of Old Irish fén (“a kind of vehicle”).^[6]

In West Saxon the ġ before n was vocalised and lost, and the vowel lengthened in compensation, so that the noun also appears as wǣn.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Corpus Glossary, written in the first half of the ninth century, where wægn glosses Latin “ueniculum”, a miscopying of “uehiculum” “vehicle”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word covers any wheeled vehicle, a farm wagon or cart and a carriage, and renders Latin “vehiculum”, “plaustrum”, “carrus” and “currus”.^[2][7] In the Old English Bede a girl is carried in a wagon, and in Beowulf the dragon's gold is loaded on a wain.^[2][4] In the charters wægna gang is the service of carting wood, owed to a lord.^[2] In the Boethius the stars of the Plough are wǣnes þīsla “the wagon's shafts”, and the word refers to that constellation.^[2]

The word lived on as Middle English wain, now English wain.^[10][1]

Timeline

• s. ix¹ – wægn glossing “ueniculum” in the Corpus Glossary.^[8][9]
• s. x med. – the axle and shafts of the wagon in the Old English Boethius.^[11][2]
• s. x² – stigan on wægn in the Exeter Book riddles.^[12][2]
• s. x/xi – wæs gold on wæn hladen in the Beowulf manuscript.^[13][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. a wagon, cart, carriage, vehicle.^[2][7][4]
2. (charters) in wægna gang, carting service, the fetching of wood.^[2]
3. the constellation of the Plough, Charles's Wain.^[2][1]

Word family

• crætwæġn
• hrædwæġn
• wæġnwyrhta
• fyrdwæġn

Descendants

• Middle English wayn (→ English wain; English Wayne; Scots wain)^[1]

Related words

• wegan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1152
3. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 7.71
4. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. wǣn
5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 565
6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 439
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wægn
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 76
9. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
12. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344