different between wizened vs scrawny

English

Etymology

wizen +? ed.

Inherited from Middle English wisenen, from Old English wisnian, weosnian, from Proto-Germanic *wisn?jan. Cognate with Icelandic visna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?z?nd/, /?wiz?nd/

Verb

wizened

1. simple past tense and past participle of wizen

Adjective

wizened (comparative more wizened, superlative most wizened)

1. Withered; lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, Old Mortality, ch. 8:

     "Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the housekeeper. . . "If it hadna been that I am mair than half a gentlewoman by my station, I wad hae tried my ten nails in the wizen'd hide o' her!"

   • 1907, Jack London, Before Adam, ch. 7:

     He was old, too, wizened with age, and the hair on his face was gray.

   • 2010 May 13, Richard Corliss, "Cannes: Best-Ever Film by a 101-Year-Old Man," Time (retrieved 5 Oct 2013):

     In the simple fable about old age reconciling itself to memory and destiny, Mastroianni wears the wizened smile of a man who knows he is visiting his youth for the last time.

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• scranny (dialectal)

Etymology

A variant of dialectal scranny (“thin; lean; scraggy; poor; scanty; of inferior quality”), perhaps from Old Norse skran (“rubbish; junk”) +? -y. Compare English scrannel (“lean; meager; poor; worthless”).

Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse skrælna (“to be shrivelled”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?skr??ni/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?skr?ni/
• Rhymes: -??ni

Adjective

scrawny (comparative scrawnier, superlative scrawniest)

1. Thin, malnourished and weak.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:scrawny

Related terms

• scran

Translations

References