wander

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wandren, also wanderen,^[2][3] inherited from Old English wandrian (“to wander, roam; to change; to stray”),^[4][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn, a frequentative formed from *wandōn (“to turn, change”).^[1] Hoad, Ayto and the OED write the Germanic verb as *wandrōjan,^[8][9][5] and relate it to wend and wind, to turn.^{[8][9][10][11][3][12]} Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *wendh- (“to turn, wind, weave”).^[6] Its cognates are Old Frisian wondria, Middle Dutch wanderen, Middle Low German wanderen and German wandern;^{[5][6][13][8]} Swedish vandra and Danish vandre are probably from Low German.^[5] A similar formation with -l- gave wandelen (“to change, to wander about”), modern Dutch wandelen (“to walk”), Old Saxon wandlon (“to change”) and Old High German wantalōn (“to change”);^[5][13] Old English has it once, in wandlung (“change”).^[5][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people or animals, to move about without a fixed course; to roam: in Old English, in the Fight at Finnesburg, where a raven wanders (hræfen wandrode),^[5][4] and before 899 in Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Ayto describes the word as, etymologically, to “turn” off the correct path.^[9] Already in Old English it was used of straying from one's purpose,^[13] and Old English also used it of a planet moving among the stars.^[4] Figurative uses are recorded from before 1175.^[5] Wyclif and the earlier Wycliffite Bible often used wander to translate the Vulgate's ambulare, to walk,^[5] and in Middle English it could mean simply to go on foot or take a stroll.^[2] Of the mind, in the sense to be delirious or to rave, it dates from about 1400,^[6][5] and in the sense to go astray, to leave a settled course, from about 1500.^[6][8] The eyes have wandered since the 1570s,^[6][5] rivers and roads since 1747, in Gray's ode on Eton College,^[5] and the axis of a gyroscope since 1930.^[5] The noun, an act of wandering, is recorded from 1843 in the OED,^[5] from the late 18th century in the Shorter Oxford.^[10] Wanderlust, borrowed from German in 1902, has had its pronunciation and meaning influenced by wander and lust.^[13]

Timeline

• before 899 – to roam, move about aimlessly; to stray from a purpose.^[13][5]
• before 1175 – figurative uses.^[5]
• c. 1380 – to walk, in Wyclif.^[5]
• c. 1400 – of the mind, to rave, wander.^[6][5]
• c. 1500 – to go astray, depart from a settled course.^[6]
• 1570s – of the eyes, to rove.^[6][5]
• 1616 – to stroll, saunter, in Shakespeare.^[5]
• 1747 – of rivers and roads, to wind, meander.^[5]
• 1843 – noun, an act of wandering.^[5]
• 1902 – wanderlust.^[13]
• 1930 – of a gyroscope, to change orientation gradually.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move about without a fixed course, aim or destination; to roam.^[14][3][5]
2. To go idly or at a leisurely pace; to stroll: We wandered along the canal after lunch.^[3][5]
3. To go astray from a path or course.^[14][5]
4. Of a river or road, to follow a winding course; to meander.^[14][5]
5. Of the mind or thoughts, to lose concentration or drift from the subject.^[14][5]
6. To think or speak incoherently.^[14][6]
7. Of the eyes, to move from one point to another.^[5]
8. To travel through a place without a fixed course.^[14][5][15]
9. Of a gyroscope or other spinning body, to change its orientation gradually.^[5]

Noun

1. An act of wandering; a leisurely walk.^[3][5][10]
2. A gradual change in the orientation of a gyroscope or of the earth's axis.^[5][10]

Word family

• wanderer
• wanderingly
• outwander
• wanderlust

Related words

• wend
• wind
• wand

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.