Paw Prints

I’ve found motivation (aka a deadline) for this edition: Alpaca has a Nervousness swap for Glorified Characters. I did the colored ground (soft pastels rubbed into the paper) some months ago. The technique is from The Calligrapher’s Companion, which is also my source for how to write Carolingian script.

Alpaca is calling for nine (or ten?) cards, so to come up with nine words — the following notes. Actually, between this and the earlier research i’ve twelve words including a large cluster around undulations — waggle, wave, weave.

1. waggle — I’ll do this word in honor of this bit of trivia: Tolkien did research for the OED on words at the beginning of the W section. Apparently, his range was waggle-warlock. All the citations are a bit late for my purposes — the first is given as 1597.

Also 6-7 wagle, 9 Sc. weegle, waigle. [A frequentative of WAG v.; not found before the last decade of the 16th c., but possibly much older. Equivalent formations in Continental Teut. are WFris. waggelje to totter, Du. waggelen to stagger (early mod.Flem. waeghelen, wagghelen; also trans. to shake); (M)LG. waggeln, G. wackeln to stagger, totter (whence prob. Sw. vakla, Da. vakle); Norw., Sw. vagla refl. to rock, sway. Cf. ME. wagre WAGGER v.; also WIGGLE, WIGGLE-WAGGLE vbs.]

Wag points to WAW…

ME. wagge-n, f. root of OE. waian (ME. wae-n) to oscillate, shake: see WAW v.

The noun form of waw is obsolete for wave and has a citation for 1275. The verb form, though, has citations back before 1000.

[OE. wa{asg}ian = MLG. wagen, MDu. waghen (mod.WFlem. wagen), OHG. wagôn (MHG., mod.G. wagen), ON. vaga:OTeut. *wa{asg}{omac}jan, f. *wa{asg}{omac} agitation: see WAW n.1 Cf. WAG v.] 1. intr. To shake, totter, move loosely; to be ready to fall. Only OE. a1000 Riddles iv. 8 (Gr.) Hornsalu wa{asg}ia{edh}, wera wicstede.

2. wave: So, in the word family, i can add wave. The noun form refering to an ocean wave apparently rapidly replaced waw in the early 16th century. Interestingly, the verb form is releated to weave the second verb form of weave (ME: weve)

Also 6 wheave, 7 weive. [Continuation of ME. WEVE.] 1. a. intr. To move repeatedly from side to side; to toss to and fro; to sway the body alternately to one side and the other; to pursue a devious course, thread one’s way amid obstructions. ….

— note the common element of undulations here from waggle to waw to this weve/weave. Back to the first verb form of wave:

OE. wafian (twice, in sense 6), corresp. formally to MHG. (and rare mod.G.) waben (see Grimm s.v. wabben) to wave, undulate; the Teut. root *wa{bbar}- is found in ON. vafe wk. masc. doubt, uncertainty, and in WAVER vb. and the cognates there mentioned; the ablaut-variants *we{bbar}-, *w{aeacu}{bbar}- occur in G. weben to wave, move about (cf. WEAVE v.2, WEVE v.), which, however, is believed to be partly a dial. form of MHG. wêwen (mod.G. wehen) to wave, flutter, etc.; and in ON. váfa to swing, vibrate. It is not always possible to distinguish between this vb. and the obsolete WAIVE v.2; the two approximate or coincide in some of their senses, and in some dialects and periods were identical in sound.]

3. weave
4. warp
5. weft — all noted earlier.
6. web

Forms: 1 web, 1-2 webb, 3 weob, 3-8 webb, 4-5 veb(b, 4-7 webbe, 5-7 webe, 6 wabe, 3- web. Also Sc. and north. 6 vob, wobb(e, 6-9 wob, 7 woob, 8- 9 wab. [OE. web(b neut., corresp. to OFris. web, wob (WFris. web, webbe, NFris. wêb, wäb), OS. webbi (MLG. and LG. webbe), MDu. and Du. webbe, web, OHG. wappi, weppi, webbi (MHG. weppe, webbe) neut., ON. vef-r masc. (genit. vefjar; Da. væv, Sw. väf):OTeut. *wabjo-m, -z, f. *wa- ablaut-var. of *we-: see WEAVE v.1]

Now for something less undulating, unless one thinks of the sund waves we use with the spoken word:

7. word. What a wonderfully fundamental word

Forms: 1- word, 1-6 wurd, (3 wored, woerd, weord, wuord, wort), 3-6 werd, 3 (4-6 Sc.) wourd, (4 wrd, 4-6 worde, wurde, Sc. vord(e, vourd, 5 wor{th} (?)), 4-7 woord (6-7 -e), 5-6 Sc. wird(e. [OE. word str. n. = OFris., OS. word, MDu. wort (Du. woord), OHG., MHG., G. wort, ON. or{edh} (Sw., Da. ord), Goth. waurd:--OTeut. *wurdom:--pre-Teut. *wrdho-; cf. Lith. vadas name, Lett. wàrds word, forename, OPruss. wirds word, OIr. fordat ‘inquiunt’. Indo-Eur. werdh- is generally taken to be a deriv. of wer-, wer-, which appears in Gr. {greek} I shall say {greek}, speaker, L. verbum word, Skr. vratám command, law, etc.

Close, but not related directly
8, 9, 10. wisdom, wise, wit

Forms: 1- wisdom; 3 (Orm.) wissdom, (wistom), 3-5 wysdom, wisdam, 3-7 wisedom, wisdome, 4 wisdame, (wijsdam), 4-6 wysdome, (Sc. visdome), 4-7 wisedome, 5 wisedam, wysdam(e, wysedom, (wijsdom, wysedomme, wiesdom, vysdome, whysdom), 5-6 wysedome, (6 wisdoume, -dum(e, wisz-, wyszdome, 7 Sc. wosdome). [OE. wísdóm = OFris., OS. wîsdôm, MDu. wijsdom, OHG., MHG. wîstuom (G. weistum legal sentence, precedent), ON. vísdómr (Sw., Da. visdom): see WISE a. and -DOM.]

Forms: 1-5 (6 Sc.) wis, 3-5 (6 Sc.) wys, 4-7 wyse, 4- wise; also 3-5 wiis, 4 wiys, wyys, wyese, -esse, weysse, Sc. viss, vyijs, 4-5 wijs, wyes, wiss, 4-5 (6 Sc.) wyss, wice, 4-6 Sc. vyise, 4, 7 wiese, 5 wijse, wies, weise, wiesse, wisse, wysse, vise, vice, viese, Sc. vyis, 5 (6 Sc.) wyis, wyce, vyse, 6 Sc. wisz, wyise, -ice, -iss, vyiss, vyce. [OE. wís = OFris., OS., OHG. (MLG., MDu., MHG.) wîs, (Du. wijs, G. weis in phr. einen weis machen), ON. víss (Sw., Da. vis), Goth. weis (in compounds):OTeut. *wsaz:pre-Teut. *wttos, f. Indo-Eur. weid- (see WIT v.1) + ppl. suffix -to-.

1. Infinitive. .1 1 witan (witenne, -an(n)e, -on(n)e), 2-5 witen, 3-5 wyten, wite, 4-5 wytene, (whyte, wiet), 4-6 wyt(e, wytte, witte, Sc. vit, (1 wiotan, wietan, Northumb. wuta, 3 witene, Orm. witenn, 4 witin, witten, wijt, wyete, Sc. vyt, -e, 5 wiete, whitte), 4-7 witt, 5-6 wytt, 4- wit. .2 4-6 wet, wette, (4 Sc. vet), 5 wetten. . 4-5 wetyn, 4-6 weit(e, 4-7 wete, 5 weten(e, 5-7 weete, (8-9 arch.) weet, (6 arch. weeten). (See also WEET v.1, WOT.)

11, 12 — wax and wane: all noted earlier.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2003 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Edition research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.