wain
/weɪn/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of wane
Forms wains waining wained the Wain wayn
- noun (archaic or literary) A wagon; a four-wheeled cart for hauling loads, usually pulled by horses or oxen. “"The Hay Wain" is a famous painting by John Constable.”
- noun (archaic, poetry and mythology) A chariot or similar stately carriage.
- verb (rare, transitive) To carry.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun A village in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Synonyms
John Wain John Barrington Wain Big Dipper Dipper Plough Charles's Wain Wagon
Etymology
From Middle English wayn, from Old English wæġn, from Proto-West Germanic *wagn, from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *woǵʰnos, from *weǵʰ- (“to bring, transport”). Doublet of wagon, borrowed from Middle Dutch.
Cognate with West Frisian wein, Dutch wagen, German Wagen, Danish vogn, Norwegian vogn, Swedish vagn.
From wee one.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A four-wheeled vehicle for the transportation of goods, produce, etc.; a wagon.
- noun A chariot. [Obs.] The Wain. (Astron.) See Charles's Wain, in the Vocabulary.
Etymology [OE. wain, AS. wægn; akin to D. & G. wagen, OHG. wagan, Icel. & Sw. vagn, Dan. vogn, and E. way. Way, Weigh, and cf. Wagon.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wain”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details