wane
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /weɪn/
rhymes: -eɪn
homophone: wain
homophone: Wayne
Forms: form: wanes
Etymology: From Middle English wane, from Old English wana (“defect, shortage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wanō, from Proto-Germanic *wanô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon; empty, deserted”).
Cognates
See also wan-, want, and waste. Compare also Dutch waan (“insanity”) and German Wahn (“insanity”) deprecated defect, Old Norse vanr (“lacking”) ( > Danish prefix van-, only found in compounds), Latin vanus, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐍃 (wans, “missing, lacking”), Albanian vonë (“late, futile, mentally retarded”), Armenian ունայն (unayn, “empty”), Old Saxon and Old High German wanon (“to decrease”), Modern Dutch weinig (“a few”), Modern German weniger (“less”), comparative of wenig (“few”) (-ig being a derivate suffix; -er the suffix of comparatives). Doublet of vain, vaunt, vaniloquent, vast, vacuum, vacant, vacate, which are Latin-derived, via the PIE root.
Senses: examples: 1853, Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin, 1968; reprinted 1995 as Bartleby, →ISBN, p. 3,
In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, meridian -- his dinner hour -- it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing -- but, as it were, with a gradual wane -- till six o'clock, PM, or thereabouts; after which, I saw no more of the proprietor of the face, ….
1913, Michael Ott, The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Wenzel Anton Kaunitz",
His influence which was on the wane during the reign of Joseph II grew still less during the reign of Leopold II (1790-2).
glosses: A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
examples: text: Some French peasants also prefer to sow in the wane.
ref: 1906, James George Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, volume 2, page 133:
text: It was very dark, for although the sky was clear the moon was now well in the wane, and would not rise till the small hours.
ref: 1926, H. P. Lovecraft, The Moon-Bog:
glosses: The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
examples: text: The day was in its prime, the day was in its wane, and still, uneasy in mind and body, she slept on.
ref: 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:
text: The situation of the Venetian party in the wane of the eighteenth century had become extremely critical.
ref: 1845, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil, or The Two Nations, Book 1, Chapter 3:
text: ]
glosses: The end of a period.
examples: 2002, Peter Ross, Appraisal and Repair of Timber Structures, p. 11,
Sapwood, or even bark, may appear on the corners, or may have been cut off, resulting in wane, or missing timber.
topics: arts
business
carpentry
construction
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
manufacturing
woodworking
glosses: A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
Synonyms: sense: a diminution in power, value
word: decrease
sense: a diminution in power, value
word: decline
Derived terms: on the wane