# wesan
## Old Dutch
### Etymology

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

### Verb

wesan
* to be

#### Descendants

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

#### Further reading

* “wesan”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

## Old English
### Alternative forms

* weosan — Anglian
* wosa, wossa — Northumbrian, Lindisfarne Gospels
* wesa — Mercian, Rushworth Gospels, hapax legomenon

### Etymology 1

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.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈwe.sɑn/, [ˈwe.zɑn]

#### Verb

wesan
* 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."

##### Usage notes

* 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 present plural indicative form wesaþ is also attested a few times. This hypercorrect form may have been influenced by the imperative plural (which was identical to the present plural indicative in typical strong and weak verbs), or perhaps the infinitive.

##### Synonyms

* bēon

##### Derived terms

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

### Etymology 2

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

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈwe.sɑn/, [ˈwe.zɑn]

#### Verb

wesan
* to consume or feast
** c. 975–1025, Beowulf (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV)‎, 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 [...]"

##### Usage notes

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

##### Descendants

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

### Etymology 3

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

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈweː.sɑn/, [ˈweː.zɑn]

#### Verb

wēsan
* to soak; to macerate; to dye
* to ooze

##### Derived terms

* wēsa
* wēsing

##### Related terms

* wōs

##### Descendants

* Middle English: wesen
** English: weeze
** Scots: weese, weeze, wease

### Further reading

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

### References

* ↑ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “Wesan- 2”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
* ↑ Seebold, Elmar (1970) “WES-A- 2”, in Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben (Janua Linguarum. Series practica; 85) (in German), Paris, Den Haag: Mouton, →ISBN: “562-63”

## Old High German
### Alternative forms

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

### Etymology

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

### Verb

wësan
* to be, exist

#### Derived terms

* giwësan (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

#### Descendants

* 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)

## Old Saxon
### Etymology

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”).

### Verb

wesan
* to be

#### Synonyms

* sīn (rare infinitive)

#### Descendants

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

## Tok Pisin
### Etymology

From English white sand.

### Noun

wesan
* sand

#### Related terms

* nambis