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wane

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Wane and wáne

English

WOTD – 4 September 2008

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wanō, from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”).

Cognates

See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) ( > Danish prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans, “missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (unayn, “empty”), Old Saxon and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Modern Dutch weinig (“a few”), Modern German weniger (“less”), comparative of wenig (“few”) (-ig being a derivate suffix; -er the suffix of comparatives). Doublet of vain, vaunt, vaniloquent, vast, vacuum, vacant, vacate, which are Latin-derived, via the PIE root.

Noun

wane (plural wanes)

  1. A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
    • 1853, Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin, 1968; reprinted 1995 as Bartleby, →ISBN, p. 3,
      In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian -- his dinner hour -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing -- but, as it were, with a gradual wane -- till six o'clock, PM, or thereabouts; after which, I saw no more of the proprietor of the face, [...].
    • 1913, Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Wenzel Anton Kaunitz",
      His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
  2. The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
    • 1906, James George Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, volume 2, page 133:
      Some French peasants also prefer to sow in the wane.
    • 1926, H. P. Lovecraft, The Moon-Bog:
      It was very dark, for although the sky was clear the moon was now well in the wane, and would not rise till the small hours.
  3. (literary) The end of a period.
  4. (woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
    • 2002, Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures, p. 11,
      Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane, or missing timber.
Usage notes
  • When referring to the moon or a time period, the word is found mostly in prepositional phrases like in or on the wane.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wanen, wanien, from Old English wanian, wonian, from Proto-West Germanic *wanōn, from Proto-Germanic *wanōną.

Verb

wane (third-person singular simple present wanes, present participle waning, simple past and past participle waned)

  1. (intransitive) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
    • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
      You saw but sorrow in its waning form.
    • 1668, Sir Josiah Child, A New Discourse of Trade:
      Land and trade ever will wax and wane together.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Chapter 118”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, down, to dumbest dust.
    • 1902, John Masefield, The Golden City of St. Mary:
      And in the cool twilight when the sea-winds wane […]
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
      And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties ; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].
    • 2022 September 30, Rebecca Ratcliffe, “Anger after Thai court rules 2014 coup leader can carry on as PM”, in The Guardian‎, Guardian News & Media Limited:
      His popularity, however, has waned, say analysts.
  2. (intransitive) For light to dim or diminish in strength.
  3. (intransitive, astronomy) For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
    • 1866, Sabine Baring-Gould, “The Man in the Moon”, in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages:
      The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill, simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot after another, as the moon wanes.
  4. (intransitive) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
  5. (intransitive, archaic) To decrease physically in size, amount, numbers or surface.
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to decrease.
    • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Speeches at Prince Henry's Barriers:
      In which no lustful finger can profane him,
      Nor any earth with black eclipses wane him
    • 1797, Anna Seward, Letter to Mrs Childers of Yorkshire‎:
      Proud once and princely was the mansion, ere a succession of spendthrifts waned away its splendour.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

From Scots wean.

Alternative forms

Noun

wane (plural wanes)

  1. (Scotland, slang) A child.

Etymology 4

From Middle English wōne, wāne (“dwelling," "custom”), of unclear origins, compare wont.

Alternative forms

  • wone (Southern England)

Noun

wane (plural wanes)

  1. (chiefly Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) A house or dwelling.

Anagrams

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Dutch

Fula

Middle Dutch

Middle English

North Frisian

Old English

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