wesan

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

wesan

1. to be

• Middle Dutch: wēsen
  • Dutch: wezen
    • Afrikaans: wees
    • Jersey Dutch: wêze
    • Negerhollands: wees, wis
  • Limburgish: waeze

• “wesan”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• weosan — Anglian
• wesa, wosa, uosa, wossa, uossa

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

The simple present forms originate from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”), which had no infinitive or past tense in Proto-Germanic, but had already formed a single paradigm with *wesaną supplying the infinitive and past tense.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwe.sɑn/, [ˈwe.zɑn]

wesan

1. to be, exist
   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of The Consolation of Philosophy

     Þā cwæþ hē, "Wāst þū hwæt mann sīe?" Þā cwæþ iċ, "Iċ wāt þæt hit biþ sāwol and līchama."

     Then he said, "Do you know what a person is?" So I said, "I know it's a soul and a body."

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 9:12

     Þā cwǣdon hīe tō him, "Hwǣr is hē?" Þā cwæþ hē, "Iċ nāt."

     Then they said to him, "Where is he?" And he said, "I don't know."

• The verbs bēon and wesan both mean to be, but in different circumstances. For most purposes, wesan is used; bēon is used for what is known as the "gnomic present" and the future tense of to be.
  • The gnomic present, in short, refers to anything which is a general truth, like Winter biþ ċealdost ("Winter is coldest"), or Fēower sīðum seofon bēoþ eahta and twēntiġ ("Four times seven is (lit. "are") twenty-eight"). Generally, statements about the self will not be gnomic. For example, although it may seem that a statement like I am a person is always true, such a statement is nonetheless rendered with wesan: Iċ eom mann.
  • To be is the only verb in Old English for which the future tense may be indicated with morphology instead of adverbs or context clues, and for this purpose, bēon is used. So, I am the king is rendered as Iċ eom sē cyning, but I will be the king is rendered as Iċ bēo sē cyning. Note that bēon is not used for any other verb's future tense; both I see it and I will see it are written as Iċ hit ġesēo.
  • Both bēon and wesan share past tense forms.
• Both bēon and wesan are copulative verbs, which means they are not transitive and do not take a direct object. Because of this, predicate nouns and adjectives will be in the nominative case. For example: Hēo is iċ ("She is I"), not *Hēo is mē ("She is me").
• In the Anglian dialects, the present plural indicative form earon occurred alongside the sind/sindon forms. This may have been due to influence or loaning from the Old Norse cognate vera/vesa, or it may be an earlier native form that was lost entirely in the southern dialects.
• A regularised form wesaþ is also rarely attested for the present plural indicative, perhaps representing a hypercorrection due to influence from the infinitive and/or the imperative plural form (the latter being identical to the present plural indicative for most other Old English verbs).

• bēon

• ætwesan (“to be present”)
• forewesan (“to be before”)
• ġewesan (“to be together”)
• wist (“being”)

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną (“to consume, feast”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to graze”).^[1] The only (possible) attestation is in the form weaxan in line 3115 of Beowulf, argued to be a misspelling of weosan.^[2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈwe.sɑn/, [ˈwe.zɑn]

wesan

1. to consume or feast
   • c. 975–1025, Beowulf (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV)‎^[1], published 4th quarter 10th century–2nd half 16th century, lines 3114-15:

     "Nū sceal glēd fretan (weaxan wonna lēg) ⁠wigena strengel [...]"

     “Fire shall devour (and wan flames feed) on the fearless warrior [...]"

• The precise verb class is unknown. It is shown here according to what would be its etymologically inherited form, a class 5 strong verb.

• >? Middle English: wesen (“to tend flocks, pasture”)

From Proto-West Germanic *wōsijan, from Proto-Germanic *wōsijaną, from *wōsą.

• IPA^(key): /ˈweː.sɑn/, [ˈweː.zɑn]

wēsan

1. to soak; to macerate; to dye
2. to ooze

• John R. Clark Hall (1916) “wesan”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[2], 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan, page 350
• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “wesan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[3], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• sīn (less common infinitive, but became common over time)

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

type=irreg

wesan

1. to be, exist

• giwesan (past participle) (in some descendants, the strong -en ending was replaced by the weak -t ending, or elided)
  • Central Franconian: jewäs
  • Cimbrian: gabéest, gebest
  • German: gewesen
  • Hunsrik: gewees, geweest
  • Luxembourgish: gewiescht
  • Pennsylvania German: gewest

• Middle High German: wësen
  • Alemannic German: si, sii, siin, sinh, ŝchi

    Swabian:

  • Bavarian: sain

    Cimbrian: sain, soin, zèinan

    Mòcheno: sai'

    Northern Bavarian: [z̥ai̯]

  • Central Franconian: sein, senn, sinn

    Hunsrik: sin

    Luxembourgish: sinn

  • East Central German:

    Erzgebirgisch: [saɪ]

    Upper Saxon German:

    Vilamovian: zajn

  • East Franconian:
  • German: sein (all forms); Wesen
  • Rhine Franconian: sei, senn, sinn

    Frankfurterisch: [sɑ̃ɪ]

    Pennsylvania German: sei

  • Yiddish: זײַן (zayn)

From Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. The forms in b- derive from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow, become, appear”).

wesan

1. to be

• sīn (rare infinitive)

• Middle Low German: wēsen
  • Dutch Low Saxon: waen
  • German Low German: wesen, ween

From English white sand.

wesan

1. sand

• nambis