wane

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wanen, also wanien,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wanian (“to lessen, diminish, decline”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} from Proto-Germanic *wanōną,^[1] which Hoad gives as *wanōjan,^[8] and Etymonline as *wanōnan.^[6] It is cognate with Old Frisian wania, Middle Dutch wanen, Old Saxon wanon, Old High German wanōn, Old Norse vana (“to make less”) and vanask (“to become less”).^[5][7][6] The verb is derived from a Germanic adjective meaning lacking, *wanaz,^[10][7][3] represented by wan (“wanting, deficient”), vanr and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans);^[3][7][4] Gothic also has 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (wanains, “loss”).^[5][10] Further back, Barnhart and Etymonline trace it to a base meaning to be lacking or empty, Proto-Indo-European *eue-,^[7][6][9] the source also of Latin vānus (“empty, idle”), which gave vain,^[7][4][11] and of Ancient Greek εὖνις (eûnis, “bereft”).^[7][3] The OED calls the link with this root only probable.^[5] The same adjective survives in want and in the first syllable of wanton.^[12] The noun is inherited from Old English wana (“lack, shortage”),^[5][7][8] and its sense of waning is due to the influence of the verb.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To grow smaller, decrease: in Beowulf, which Barnhart dates about 725,^[7][5] with the transitive sense to lessen or curtail also recorded in Old English.^[5][13] The Middle English verb first appears as wanien before 1122, in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb is the opposite of wax.^[5][14] Old English already applied it to the moon, in the Blickling Homilies, to light and colour growing dim, and to a person, nation or institution losing power.^[5] It was used of qualities and feelings abating from 1297,^[5] of water ebbing from about 1290 to 1815,^[5] and of a period of time drawing to its close from 1590.^[5] The transitive use, to lessen or curtail a right, died out by 1628.^[5] Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale has Lo how I wane, fleisch and blood and skyn.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as growing less and noted that it was applied to the moon.^[15] The noun at first meant only a lack or defect, a sense lost by the late 15th century,^[5][14] until the verb gave it the sense of decrease.^[5] Its use for the waning of the moon is recorded from 1548,^[5] and on the wane and in the wane are now its usual setting.^[5][14] From the old sense of shortage comes the timber term, from 1658, for the amount by which a plank falls short of a squared shape.^[5][8] In the dialects of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Worcestershire, East Anglia and elsewhere it meant the natural unevenness of a board's edges.^[16] The adjective wane, lacking, was also used with numerals to mean short of, as in one wane of a hundred, 99, and died out by 1500.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to decrease in size or extent, in Beowulf.^[7][5]
• Old English – of the moon, to show less of its lit surface, in the Blickling Homilies.^[5]
• before 1122 – Middle English wanien, in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[7]
• c. 1290 – of quantities and of the sea, to subside, ebb (obsolete by 1815).^[5]
• 1297 – of qualities or feelings, to abate.^[5]
• before 1300 – noun, decrease in size.^[5]
• before 1400 – noun, a gradual decline in power or intensity.^[5]
• 1548 – noun, the waning of the moon.^[5] Etymonline dates this to the 1560s.^[6]
• 1590 – of a period of time, to draw to its close.^[5]
• 1658 – noun, the amount by which a plank falls short of a squared shape.^[5]
• 1821 – of a person, to lose vigour, to age.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of the moon, to show a progressively smaller lit area, between full and new; opposed to wax.^[17][9][11]
2. To decrease gradually in size, number, strength or intensity: Public enthusiasm for the scheme soon waned.^[9][17]
3. Of light or colour, to grow faint or dim: The lamps waned as the generator failed.^[3][5]
4. To decline in power, prosperity or influence.^[3][5]
5. To draw to a close: The afternoon was waning when they reached the ferry.^[9][17][5]
6. (obsolete, Old English–1628) To lessen or curtail something, such as a right.^[5][2]

Noun

1. A gradual decrease or decline, especially in on the wane, in decline: His fame was on the wane.^[9][17][11]
2. The period during which the moon wanes.^[17][9][3]
3. The bevelled or defective edge of a plank or log, where it falls short of a squared shape.^{[11][17][3][5]}
4. (obsolete, Old English–1400) Lack, shortage.^[5][14]

Adjective

1. (obsolete, Old English–1500) With numbers, short of: one wane of a hundred, 99.^[6][5]

Word family

• wany

Related words

• want
• wanton
• vain

Usage notes

The spelling also covered two obsolete Middle English nouns of other origin: wane, a dwelling, from a Germanic root of custom and dwelling,^[5] which lasted in Scots,^[16] and wane, misery, recorded from before 1200 to 1387 and perhaps an extension of wēa.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
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 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
14. ^ 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
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins