English

Proper noun

Wen

1. A common surname​ of east Asian derivation.

Translations

Anagrams

• New, new

English

Noun

wen ‎(plural wens)

1. A cyst on the skin.
   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Walden:

     When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all--looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck--I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry.

   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     Creeps, foreigners with tinted, oily skin, wens, sties, cysts, wheezes, bad teeth, limps, staring or—worse—with Strange Faraway Smiles.

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Abacus 2013, p. 4:

     I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English wynn

Noun

wen ‎(plural wens)

1. a runic letter later replaced by w

Etymology 3

Eye dialect spelling of when.

Adverb

wen ‎(not comparable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Conjunction

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Pronoun

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Noun

wen ‎(uncountable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Anagrams

• new, New

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch winnen, from Middle Dutch winnen, from Old Dutch winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wen- ‎(“to strive, desire, wish, love”).

Verb

wen ‎(present wen, present participle wennende, past participle gewen)

1. to win

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛn

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *hwannē. Cognate with English when, German wann.

Adverb

wen

1. (archaic) when

   En ik dacht aan den geur harer bloesems, aan het huiveren harer takken, aan den zang harer vogelen; en ik vroeg mij: wen rieken wij die? (V. Someren, 1822)

   And I thought about the scent of her blossoms, at the shuddering of her branches, at the songs of her birds, and I asked myself: when do we smell these?

Conjunction

wen

1. (archaic) when

   Daar heb ik wen de vogels vlogen, heimelik in elk nest geschouwd! (L. De Mont, 1880)

   There have I, when the birds flew, looked privily in each nest!

Etymology 2

Verb

wen

1. first-person singular present indicative of wennen
2. imperative of wennen

Elfdalian

Pronoun

wen

1. what

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [veːn]
• Rhymes: -eːn

Pronoun

wen

1. (interrogative) accusative of wer: who(m) (direct object).

Gothic

Romanization

wēn

1. Romanization of 𐍅𐌴𐌽

Mandarin

Romanization

wen

1. Nonstandard spelling of wēn.
2. Nonstandard spelling of wén.
3. Nonstandard spelling of wěn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of wèn.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wēniz, from Proto-Indo-European *wen- ‎(“love”). Cognate with Old Frisian wen, Old Saxon wan, Old High German wān (German Wahn ‘delusion’), Old Norse ván, Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌽𐍃 ‎(wēns).

Pronunciation

Noun

wēn f

1. hope, belief
2. expectation, likelihood

Declension

Descendants

• English: ween

Welsh

Adjective

wen

1. Soft mutation of gwen ‎(“white (feminine)”).

Mutation