winnan

Forms

winnan (strong class 3; third-person singular present winþ, past singular wann, past plural wunnon)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną (“to toil, strive”).^[1] The strong verb is Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (winnan, “to suffer”), Old Norse vinna (“to labour, work, win”), Old Frisian winna (“to gain”), Old Saxon winnan (“to work, fight”) and Old High German winnan (“to suffer, toil”).^[2][3][4]

Orel connects it with Sanskrit वनोति (vanóti, “to strive for, obtain”) and Latin venus (“love”);^[2] Köbler and Wiktionary derive it from a root Proto-Indo-European *wen- (“to strive, win”).^[5][1] Holthausen puts it with the noun wine (“friend”) and the Sanskrit verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is the Vespasian Psalter gloss, added in the mid-ninth century: “in idelnisse winnað ða timbriað” over the Latin “in uanum laborant qui aedificant” of Psalm 126 “they labour in vain who build”.^[6][7][8] In the Pastoral Care (890×897) it has the sense of striving against: “Monige eac wise lareowas winnað mid hira ðeawum wið ða gæsðlecan bebodu” “many wise teachers also fight with their conduct against the spiritual commands”.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is to toil and labour, as in the psalm gloss and in Bede's account of a monk who worked with his hands.^[8] From toil it moved to striving after something (winnan æfter wealth or wisdom), to being troubled and suffering, and to contending, fighting and making war.^[8][10] In Beowulf it is to fight or contend, of Grendel's long war against Hrothgar.^[11] Sweet records the sense of suffering an illness (winnan of feferadle).^[10] The sense “gain, conquer” belongs mostly to the compound ġewinnan.^[3][12]

Middle English winnen kept the senses to strive and to fight;^[13] the English word win arose from a fusion of winnan and gewinnan, and its sense of victory dates from about 1300.^[14][11]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – in idelnisse winnað “labour in vain” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[6][7]
• 890×897 – winnað … wið “strive against” in the Pastoral Care.^[9][7]
• s. x/xi – wan “fought” of Grendel in the Beowulf manuscript.^[15][11]
• c. 1300 – English win in the sense “be victorious”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. to labour, toil, work.^[8][10]
2. to strive after, endeavour.^[8]
3. to be troubled, suffer, endure hardship.^[8][10]
4. to contend, fight, make war; to resist, contradict.^[8][11]

Word family

• āwinnan
• onwinnan
• ġewinnan
• ġewinn

Descendants

• Middle English winnen (→ English win; Scots win)^[1]

Related words

• wine

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 455
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 398
4. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. winnan
6. ^ 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. 329
7. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 1234
9. ^ 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. 499
10. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 229
11. ^ 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. winnan
12. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 411
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ 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