13 February 2007

Ween

My friend and I were talking this evening and the word "ween" came up. We used it, at first, when trying to say wean, as in "I am trying to wean off caffeine." Thinking we spelled it wrong (we did), we looked up "ween." It's an old word, meaning "to think; suppose." So, I tried to use it in a sentence:

I ween that it will be cold tomorrow.
It's weened to be cold tomorrow.
I'm weened to be working right now.
None of those seemed to sound right, so I looked a little further and found that it can also mean "to hope" or "to believe."
I ween it doesn't snow tomorrow.
I do ween in spooks.
Again, doesn't sound right. It's an archaic word, so it probably doesn't fit at all in with English now. But does anyone know the proper use of "ween?"

Clarification: "Wean" is a word, meaning -- among other things -- "to detach from a source of dependence." That's not the word I'm talking about.

1 comment:

Jared said...

I ween you missed one here, Toby:

Ween the Rock Band