different between weed vs ween

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wi?d/
• Rhymes: -i?d
• Homophone: we'd

Etymology 1

From Middle English weed, weod, from Old English w?od (“weed”), from Proto-West Germanic *weud, from Proto-Germanic *weud? (“weed”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jood (“weed”), West Frisian wjûd (“weed”), Dutch wied (“unwanted plant, weed”), German Low German Weed (“weed”), Old High German wiota (“fern”).

Noun

weed (countable and uncountable, plural weeds)

1. (countable) Any plant regarded as unwanted at the place where, and at the time when it is growing.
2. Short for duckweed.
3. (uncountable, archaic or obsolete) Underbrush; low shrubs.
4. A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.
   1. (uncountable, slang) Cannabis.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana
   2. (with "the", uncountable, slang) Tobacco.
   3. (obsolete, countable) A cigar.
5. (countable) A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.
6. (countable, Britain, informal) A puny person; one who has little physical strength.
7. (countable, figuratively) Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• grow like a weed
• weeds

Etymology 2

From Middle English weeden, weden, from Old English w?odian (“to weed”), from Proto-Germanic *weud?n? (“to uproot, weed”). Cognate with West Frisian wjûde, wjudde (“to weed”),Dutch wieden (“to weed”), German Low German weden (“to weed”).

Verb

weed (third-person singular simple present weeds, present participle weeding, simple past and past participle weeded)

1. To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area.

   I weeded my flower bed.

2. (library science) To systematically remove materials from a library collection based on a set of criteria.

   We usually weed romance novels that haven't circulated in over a year.

Translations

See also

• weed out

Etymology 3

From Middle English wede, from Old English w?d (“dress, attire, clothing, garment”), from Proto-Germanic *w?diz, from which also wad, wadmal. Cognate with Dutch lijnwaad, Dutch gewaad, German Wat.

Noun

weed (plural weeds)

1. (archaic) A garment or piece of clothing.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 5 p. 75[2]:

     Shee, in a watchet weed, with manie a curious wave

     Which as a princelie gift great Amphitrite gave

2. (archaic) Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5 Scene 3

     DON PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;

     And then to Leonato's we will go.

     CLAUDIO. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's,

     Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe!
3. (archaic) An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.

4. (archaic, especially in the plural as "widow's weeds") (Female) mourning apparel.
   • 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation in England, Second Book:

     In a mourning weed, with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing.

Translations

Etymology 4

From Scots weid, weed. The longer form weidinonfa, wytenonfa (Old Scots wedonynpha) is attested since the 1500s. Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language analyses the longer form as a compound meaning "onfa(ll) of a weed", whereas the Scottish National Dictionary/DSL considers the short form a derivative of the longer form, and derives its first element from Old English w?dan (“to be mad or delirious”), from w?d (“mad, enraged”).

Noun

weed (plural weeds)

1. (Scotland) A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which befalls those who are about to give birth, are giving birth, or have recently given birth or miscarried or aborted.
   • 1822, William Campbell, Observations on the Disease usually termed Puerperal Fever, with Cases, in The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 18:

     The patient […] aborted between the second and third month; […] felt herself so well on the second day after, that she went to the washing-green; and, on her return home in the evening, was seized with a violent rigor, which, by herself and those around her, was considered as the forerunner of a weed.

2. (Scotland) Lymphangitis in a horse.

Etymology 5

From the verb wee.

Verb

weed

1. simple past tense and past participle of wee

References

• weed in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Webster, Noah (1828) , “weed”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language
• (tobacco; a cigar): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wi?n/
• Homophones: wean
• Rhymes: -i?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English wene, from Old English w?n, w?na (“hope, weening, expectation”), from Proto-Germanic *w?niz, *w?n? (“hope, expectation”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh?- (“to strive, love, want, reach, win”). Cognate with Dutch waan (“delusion”), Afrikaans waan (“delusion”), German Wahn (“illusion, false hope”).

Noun

ween (plural weens)

1. (obsolete) Doubt; conjecture.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wenen, from Old English w?nan, from Proto-Germanic *w?nijan?. Cognate with Dutch wanen, German wähnen.

Verb

ween (third-person singular simple present weens, present participle weening, simple past weened or (obsolete) wende or (obsolete) wente, past participle weened or (obsolete) wend or (obsolete) went)

1. (archaic) To suppose, imagine; to think, believe.
   • 1481, Author unknown (pseudonym Sir John Mandeville), The travels of Sir John Mandeville:

     And when they will fight they will shock them together in a plump; that if there be 20000 men, men shall not ween that there be scant 10000.

   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts VIII:

     Then sayde Peter unto hym: Perissh thou and thy money togedder. For thou wenest that the gyfte of god maye be obteyned with money?

   • 1562, John Heywood, The proverbs, epigrams, and miscellanies of John Heywood:

     Wise men in old time would ween themselves fools; Fools now in new time will ween themselves wise.

   • 1677, Thomas Mall, A cloud of witnesses:

     … for I ween he will no longer suffer him to abide among the adulterous and wicked Generation of this World.

   • 1793, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel:

     But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,

     Shall wholly do away, I ween,

     The marks of that which once hath been.

   • 1878, W.S. Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore ('When I was a lad'):

     And that junior partnership, I ween, Was the only ship that I ever had seen.

   • 1884, W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida:

     Yet humble second shall be first, I ween

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 18, [1]

     Little ween the snug card-players in the cabin of the responsibilities of the sleepless man on the bridge.

   • 1974, Stanis?aw Lem, trans. Michael Kandel, The Cyberiad:

     Klapaucius too, I ween,
     Will turn the deepest green
     To hear such flawless verse from Trurl’s machine.

2. (dated) To expect, hope or wish.

Derived terms

• overween
• underween

Etymology 3

From Middle English weinen (“to wail, lament”), from Old English w?nian (“to bewail, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *wain?n? (“to cry, lament, grieve”). Cognate with Dutch wenen (“to weep, cry”), German weinen (“to weep, cry”), Icelandic veina (“to wail, cry out”), West Frisian weine (“to weep, cry”).

Verb

ween (third-person singular simple present weens, present participle weening, simple past and past participle weened)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) To weep or cry.

2. (obsolete) To lament.

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Etymology 4

Verb

ween

1. Misspelling of wean.

Etymology 5

Abbreviation of wiener dog

Noun

ween (plural weens)

1. (slang) wiener dog, dachshund

Anagrams

• Ewen, enew, newe

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?n

Verb

ween

1. first-person singular present indicative of wenen
2. imperative of wenen

Anagrams

• wene

Low German

Verb

ween

1. Alternative spelling of wesen

North Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

ween

1. blue

Wolof

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Noun

ween (definite form ween wi)

1. breast