different between waken vs whet

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

From Middle English whetten, from Old English hwettan (“to whet, sharpen, incite, encourage”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *hwatjan? (“to incite, sharpen”), from Proto-Indo-European *k?eh?d- (“sharp”).

Cognate with Dutch wetten (“to whet, sharpen”), German wetzen (“to whet, sharpen”), Icelandic hvetja (“to whet, encourage, catalyze”), dialectal Danish hvæde (“to whet”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?t/
  • (without wine–whine) IPA^(key): /???t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?t/, [?w?(?)t?]
  • (without wine–whine) IPA^(key): /???t/, [???(?)t?]
• Rhymes: -?t
• Homophone: wet

Verb

whet (third-person singular simple present whets, present participle whetting, simple past and past participle whetted or whet)

1. (transitive) To hone or rub on with some substance, as a piece of stone, for the purpose of sharpening – see whetstone.
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV scene i^[1]:

     Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
2. (transitive) To stimulate or make more keen.

   to whet one's appetite or one's courage

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II scene i^[2]:

     Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, / I have not slept.

   • 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xv^[3]:

     My faith in vegetarianism grew on me from day to day. Salt's book whetted my appetite for dietetic studies. I went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To preen.

Derived terms

• whetter (rare)
• whetstone

Translations

Noun

whet (plural whets)

1. The act of whetting something.
2. That which whets or sharpens; especially, an appetizer.

   • sips, drams, and whets

   • 1769, Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English Housekeeper

     To make a nice Whet before Dinner […]

Anagrams

• thew