wade

Pronunciation

• IPA: /weɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English wadan (“to go forward, proceed”) (about 725, in Beowulf),^[2][3][4] from *wadaną,^[3] cognate with Dutch waden, German waten and Old Norse vaða, to wade,^[2][3][4] and outside Germanic with Latin vādere, to go, and vadum, ford.^[2][3][4][5] Italian guado and French gué, ford, are loans from Germanic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To go, advance, move onward: before 1000,^[6] in Old English chiefly poetic, except in compounds such as oferwadan, to wade across.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense to walk through water, or any substance that hinders movement, is from about 1200,^[3][4] and Etymonline thinks it may have been an Old English sense too.^[3] In Old English a weapon could also wade, penetrate, into something (993).^[6] Originally a strong verb (past tense wod), it has been weak since the 16th century.^[3] To proceed with difficulty (wade through a book) and to attack energetically (wade in) are figurative uses.^[7][8] The noun, an act of wading, is from 1665.^[6][9]

Timeline

• c. 725 – wadan, to go.^[2]
• 993 – to penetrate (of a weapon).^[6]
• c. 1200 – to walk through water.^[3]
• 16th century – weak verb forms.^[3]
• 1665 – a wade (noun).^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To walk through water or something else that slows movement.
2. To make one's way with difficulty: to wade through paperwork.
3. wade in or into: to attack or begin with energy.

Noun

1. An act of wading.

Word family

• waddle
• wader

Related words

• invade
• evade
• pervade

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster