different between waken vs waxen

English

Etymology

From Middle English waknen, from Old English wæcnan, from Proto-Germanic *waknan?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?we?k?n/
• Rhymes: -e?k?n

Verb

waken (third-person singular simple present wakens, present participle wakening, simple past and past participle wakened)

1. (transitive) To wake or rouse from sleep.
2. (intransitive) To awaken; to cease to sleep; to be awakened; to stir.

   • Early, Turnus wakening with the light.

   • She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

Related terms

• awaken

Anagrams

• Wanek, Wanke

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?k?(n)/
• Rhymes: -a?k?n

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch waken, from Old Dutch wacon, from Proto-Germanic *wak?n? (“to be awake”).

Verb

waken

1. (intransitive) to stay awake
2. (intransitive) to watch, to be alert

Inflection

Derived terms

• bewaken
• ontwaken
• waakhond
• waakkat
• waakvlam

Related terms

• wake
• wakker
• wekken

Descendants

• ? Papiamentu: wak

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

waken

1. Plural form of wake

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch wacon

Verb

w?ken

1. (intransitive) to wake, to be awake
2. (intransitive) to not be or fall asleep, to stay awake
3. (intransitive) to awaken, to wake up
4. (transitive) to guard

Inflection

Descendants

• Dutch: waken
• Limburgish: wake

Further reading

• “waken (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “waken (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English wacan, from Proto-Germanic *wakan?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wa?k?n/

Verb

waken

1. to wake, cease from sleep, to be awake
2. to remain awake on watch (especially over a corpse)

Conjugation

Related terms

• wake (“a watch, vigil”)
• wakien (“to watch, awake”)
• waknen (“to waken, to be aroused from sleep”)

Descendants

• English: wake
• Scots: wake

Etymology 2

From Old English w?cian.

Verb

waken

1. Alternative form of woken

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English waxen, from Old English weaxen, ?eweaxen, from Proto-Germanic *wahsanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *wahsijan? (“to wax, grow, increase”), equivalent to wax +? -en (past participle ending).

Adjective

waxen (comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)

1. (Britain, dialectal) Grown.

Etymology 2

Verb

waxen

1. (archaic) alternative past participle of wax.
2. (obsolete) plural simple present of wax
   • 1540, Great Bible, Second Edition, Preface

     And they that occupye them been in muche savegarde, and have greate consolacyon, and been the readyer unto all goodnesse, the slower to all evyll: and if they have done anything amysse, anone even by the sight of the bookes, theyr conscvences been admonished, and they waxen sory and ashamed of the facte.

   • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender

     When the rayne is faln, the cloudes wexen cleare.

   • 1590-97, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, II, i

     And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,

     And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear

     A merrier hour was never wasted there.

Etymology 3

From Middle English waxen (“made of wax”), from Old English weaxen (“waxen, made of wax”), equivalent to wax +? -en (“made of”).

Adjective

waxen (comparative more waxen, superlative most waxen)

2. Made of wax; covered with wax.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, Scene 4,^[1]

     She is fair; and so is Julia that I love—

     That I did love, for now my love is thaw’d;

     Which, like a waxen image, ’gainst a fire,

     Bears no impression of the thing it was.

3. Of or pertaining to wax.
4. Having the pale smooth characteristics of wax, waxlike, waxy.
   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, Penguin, 1969, Chapter 28, p. 185,^[2]

     It was hard to imagine that the broken thing had once been new; that those withered, waxen cheeks had been fresh and tinted. That her eyes had long ago glinted with laughter.

5. (rare) Easily effaced, as if written in wax.

Derived terms

• waxen chatterer
• waxen image

Translations

Middle English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?waks?n/, /?w?ks?n/

Etymology 1

From Old English weaxan, from Proto-Germanic *wahsijan?.

Alternative forms

• waxenn, waxin, waxyn, waxe, wax, wexen, wexsyn, wexe, wexi, vexen

Verb

waxen

2. To grow (become larger):
   1. To grow up; to become fully grown.
   2. To wax (of the moon); to rise (of the tide).
3. To increase in amount; to multiply
4. To increase in magnitude; to magnify
5. To appear; to arise.
6. To change; to turn (to or into something)
7. To become, to assume (a quality or state)

Usage notes

Already in Old English, this verb's conjugation varied; in Northumbria, the original class 6 conjugation was retained, while elsewhere, the verb went over to class 7; this variation persists in Middle English. Further variation results from levelling of forms during the Middle English period.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• faxwax
• wax
• waxyng

Descendants

• English: wax
• Scots: wax

References

• “waxen, v.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From wax (“wax”) +? -en (“infinitival ending”).

Alternative forms

• waxyn, waxe, wax, wexen

Verb

waxen

2. to wax (apply wax to; cover in wax)
3. (rare) to stop (a hole)

Conjugation

Descendants

• English: wax

References

• “waxen, v.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

From wax (“wax”) +? -en (“made of”).

Adjective

waxen

2. (hapax) waxen (made of wax)

Descendants

• English: waxen

References

• “waxen, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.