different between ween vs weet

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English weten, a Middle English variant of witen (“to know”). More at wit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wi?t/

Verb

weet (third-person singular simple present weets, present participle weeting, simple past and past participle weeted)

1. (archaic) To know.
   • 1607, Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene iii, 37-41:

     The nobleness of life / Is to do thus, when such a mutual pair / And such a twain can do ’t, in which I bind, / On pain of punishment, the world to weet / We stand up peerless.

   • 1885, Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Night 13:

     I wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of Time and Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and constant to no man.

Anagrams

• ewte, twee

Afrikaans

Alternative forms

• wiet (Cape Afrikaans)

Etymology

From Dutch weten (“to know”), from Middle Dutch weten, from Old Dutch witan, from Proto-Germanic *witan?, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“see, know”). Related to the English wit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v??t/

Verb

weet (present weet, present participle wetende, past wis, past participle geweet)

1. to know
2. to be aware of

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?t/
• Hyphenation: weet
• Rhymes: -e?t

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch wete.

Noun

weet f (plural weten, diminutive weetje n)

1. awareness, knowledge
2. knowledge; science.
3. (archaic) notice; advertisement.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

weet

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of weten
2. imperative of weten
3. singular past indicative of wijten

Anagrams

• twee, wete

Limburgish

Etymology

From Old Dutch *wit, from Proto-Germanic *wet, *wit. A rare example of the old dual pronoun surviving into a modern West Germanic language.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [we?t], [we?ð]

Pronoun

weet

1. nominative dual of ich

Luxembourgish

Verb

weet

1. inflection of weeden:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person plural present indicative
   3. second-person singular/plural imperative

Middle Dutch

Verb

wêet

1. first/third-person singular present indicative of w?ten

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian hw?te, w?t, from Proto-West Germanic *hwait?.

Noun

weet c (plural weten)

1. wheat

Further reading

• “weet (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011